Pokémon: Prisoners of the Night
by etherphobos
Summary: A story centered around Bianca and Grimsley, set after Pokemon Black and White 2. Dear Bianca, I hope this letter finds you, at all, as it seems that once again, to my most shameful disappointment, I must ask for your help.
1. A desperate cry

__From: Cheren__

 _ _To: Bianca__

 _ _Dear Bianca, I hope this letter finds you__ _ _. I__ _ _t seems once again, to my most shameful disappointment, I must ask for your help.__

 _ _As you know, Colress finally disbanded what little remained of the twice defeated team plasma,__ _ _a__ _ _new champion has been crowned, and Ghetsis has seemingly gone mad and disappeared.__

 _ _Then, after saving the world and returning the region to normalcy, the new champion, as well as the past champions, left Unova to pursue the next step on their journey...and that's where Grimsley entered the picture.__

 _ _He took advantage of the ensuing confusion, rounded up the remnants of team plasma that sided with Ghetsis, and declared himself their new leader, in what seemed to be a mischievous ploy to get himself an army of aimless hoodlums t__ _ _hat could__ _ _act as his personal minions; nothing but an imprudent and dangerous joke, or so I thought.__

 _ _I went to his lair on the pokemon league to try to reason with him, to talk him out of such childish machinations and, well, it seems my negotiation skills could use some improvement because, not only did he refuse to drop his revolting act, he has__ _ _also__ _ _taken me in as his prisoner and refuses to let me go. That is the reason behind this desperate attempt to ask you, and only you, for help.__

 _ _You know I don't like to ask people for help. I prefer to try to solve my problems on my own until it is painfully obvious that I can't do it by myself. Things have calmed down enough in order for me to write you this letter, hoping that you'll__ _ _save me, but make no mistake, I fear for my future.__

 _ _Even if I were to get out of this situation alive__ _ _(a part of me would rather die here),__ _ _who knows how my reputation will fare. People already think of me as an inexperienced weakling, and novice trainers come to me expecting an easy fight and a free badge. Of course this won't change their minds about me for the better.__ _ _T__ _ _hat's why I don't feel comfortable asking anyone for help,__ _ _anyone but you__ _ _, and only you.__

 _ _If by some miracle this letter manages to reach you, please act accordingly, that is, get me out of here. If you can save me without telling anybody else about my ignominious situation, that would be swell. It is humiliating enough for me as it is, but I'll understand if you can't make due without a bit of noise.__

 _ _I know you can do this, please be swift, and discreet.__

 _ _With love, Cheren.__

* * *

Bianca finished reading the letter, she was horrified. She raised sharply from her chair with the intention of storming out of the laboratory and run to Cheren's rescue, but the desk in front of her, which she suddenly forgot was there, got in her way and Bianca fell butt first on the floor, right after making a rather loud guttural noise, of the kind that comes out of one's mouth only to make a situation more embarrassing for them. The fall hurt her rear and her pride, but she was partially thankful because her glasses had fallen off her face, that way she couldn't identify the expressions on everyone's faces. Professor Juniper was out, sadly every single one of her assistants was present, and they all saw her fall; as if she needed to add another embarrassing scene to her already numerous list. One of the professor's assistants helped her get up and handed her her intact glasses. Bianca hid Cheren's letter behind her back and looked to the ground as she put her glasses back on,

"where are you going in such a hurry?" The assistant asked with a discernibly snobbish tone.

Bianca opened her mouth to answer him at the exact moment she realized she had no idea of where she was heading, nor of how she would start her new mission. The assistant became tired of waiting for her answer and promptly left her, and Bianca went back to her desk in silence and sat on her chair, fully immersed in a contemplative state. Meanwhile the rest of the assistants rolled their eyes at her.

Grimsley was an elusive figure, Bianca realized she didn't really know anything about him, and she couldn't think of anyone who could broaden her knowledge of such a hidden character. Perhaps Bianca herself knew more about him than anyone else, with the little information she possessed. Besides, if she started asking too many questions, she would not only risk exposing her mission, but everyone would find out that Cheren, a recently appointed gym leader, was taken prisoner by Grimsley, although she was more than willing to risk his reputation and his pride to save him, unlike Cheren himself.

However, if her fall had taught her anything, it was that she tended to rush into things, and she needed to be sure she would't fail her mission. Bianca needed to be sure she'd be able to save her best friend and make Grimsley pay for what he did to him. Because for Bianca one thing was absolutely certain: anyone who dared to mess with her friends would become an irredeemable enemy of hers, forever. She was willing to wait and suffer for it, just to make sure she had everything she needed to take her new enemy down.

Bianca firmly raised from her chair once more. She put on her vibrant green hat and grabbed her small purse of the same color from the desk. She took Cheren's letter with her and headed for the door, while the rest of the assistants stared at her in disbelief and with envy in their eyes; she seemed to always do whatever she wanted and never took anything seriously, it was inconceivable to them how the professor had let such a selfish and irresponsible brat work for her.

Working for professor Juniper was a dream come true for Bianca, she spent most of her time outdoors hanging out with many different pokemon, working toward making their lives better. However, the time not spent outside was spent on endless routines and paperwork, which were slowly turning her dream into a nightmare, so she was rather keen on going out. It's a shame it had to be under such a distressing circumstance.

She decided to head to Driftveil City, where Rood's house was located. Rood used to be one of team plasma's seven sages, but after the team was defeated the first time around, he and a group of grunts loyal to N changed their ways and actively helped defeat team plasma the second time around, seemingly for good. And now Grimsley wanted to ruin everything.

After a rather boring and uneventful trip, Bianca reached Rood's modest house, located atop a hill full of green. She knocked three times on his front door and waited patiently for someone to answer, but nobody did. She knocked again, harder this, time, but it was of no use whatsoever, and at that moment she became certain that the house was empty. However Bianca had no other leads, Rood was the only one who could tell her what happened to the rest of team plasma when they were defeated, so she was forced to wait until somebody arrived.

Bianca laid down on the grass beneath her, she put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs while a faint breeze gently caressed her face, then she gazed at the sky filled with clouds. It was still quite early in the morning and the sun was on its way up from the horizon, it turned everything on her sight bright orange. Gazing at the scenery above her, she made out the silhouette of a pair of eyes on the clouds, looking right at her, alone and powerless on her quest. Bianca suddenly wished it was night again, the moon and the stars surrounded by darkness were a sight just as beautiful to behold as anything the sun had to offer. The eyes kept looking at Bianca, they unnerved her, so she got up and tried to ignore them.

Then she tried looking through the window next to the door of the house. She stuck her face in front of the glass and used her hands to get a better view. She identified a dirty couch with holes in it, a pair of boxing gloves and a punching bag. Bianca couldn't help but feel as if her actions were an invasion of Rood's privacy and quickly moved away from the window, only to notice the silhouette of a person standing behind her on the glass.


	2. A gentle ear

It was a man, an old man, dressed in black. His reflection oozed mischief and impurity, Bianca felt his presence behind her, it sent shivers down her spine. He waited patiently for her, without moving, until she slowly turned around and finally faced him. The clear and concrete sight of the old man distressed her much more than his reflection, Bianca now had a full view of his old and wrinkled face and the wickedness that it purposefully exhibited, his gray and unwashed hair, and his dark and dusty robe which covered all of his body; everything about that man spoke of defeat and resentment.

It was Zinzolin, another one of the team plasma's seven sages. Except he, unlike Rood, had maintained his loyalty to the diabolical Ghetsis until the bitter end.

"Seems like nobody's home," Zinzolin said with his deeply resonant and raspy voice, which added gravity to his lugubrious exhibitionism.

Bianca stayed silent and stared at him, her eyes showcased her wariness. She slowly reached for her purse, a subtle gesture to which Zinzolin responded by grinning and showing his yellow teeth. He saw her as a small and defenseless mareep ready to become his prey; only a few other sights could make him happier. Bianca admitted to herself that she was afraid, but once she touched her pokeball inside her purse, she regained her confidence and called her musharna out.

The pastel colored psychic pokemon, with a round and rotund body covered by skin softer than the puffiest velvet, came out with a calm and soothing disposition; it did not make Bianca any more threatening to Zinzolin's eyes. His creepy smile got wider, he stuck his hand inside of his robe and grabbed a pokeball of his own. His equally wicked, firmly loyal weavile came out, immediately establishing a stark contrast with its opponent. Dark fur, sharp claws and fangs, a fierce face and a palpable desire to harm noticeable on the weavile's piercing stare. Weavile was everything that musharna wasn't. Zinzolin shouted at his weavile to use night slash, his deep voice and his unwell and overtly malevolent appearance took over. He had a putrid presence that demanded Bianca's attention and instigated her fear. She couldn't react.

Weavile was ecstatic to hear its trainer's voice, it ran towards musharna like a maniac with an insatiable thirst for blood. Weavile jumped just as it was close enough to musharna and released its strike, slashing its tender skin with hate. Musharna received the ruthless claw entirely, then it plummeted to the ground and fainted.

Dismayed, Bianca called her musharna back shook her head nervously, desperately trying to focus. She called out her chandelure, but Zinzolin wasted no time on introductions and ordered weavile to use night slash again, hoping to finish her second pokemon with the same efficacy as the first. The opportunistic weavile ran just as determined as before, and released its uninhibited attack the also fire-ghost type, slashing its ethereal body with claws engulfed in darkness, claws which left only pain and anguish on their path through the ghost's spectral entrails. Chandelure cried out from the damage and Bianca finally reacted, she shouted at her pokemon to use flamethrower. Still reeling from the previous attack, chandelure moved back as it charged an attack of its own, then unleashed a projectile of flames directly at weavile, who took the attack on its entirety and fainted on the spot. Fumes came out of its scorched body as it fell on the ground unconscious.

Drops of sweat appeared on Zinzolin's forehead while Bianca subtly celebrated with a deep sigh. Zinzolin called his defeated pokemon back, he clenched his teeth, hard. Then he called out his second pokemon, a cryogonal, who immediately went to meet chandelure. Two floating pokemon, fire against ice, Bianca's warmth against Zinzolin's coldness and disdain.

Both trainers cried their orders at the same time, he ordered his cryogonal to use blizzard, she ordered her chandelure to release another flamethrower. The ice pokemon attacked first, ferociously producing a giant burst of snow from within itself. Chandelure managed to avoid it altogether and in turn blasted another flamethrower directly at cryogonal. The fire reached the sentient hexagon made of ice, and it was consumed by fire all the way until it reached the ground, fainted. Bianca approached her chandelure to pet it, then she gave Zinzolin an unswerving stare.

"You think it's over, don't you?" Zinzolin asked as he directed a hateful stare at her, "you think you've won, you think you can move those little pale cheeks of yours and smile, because you're stronger than me?"

"It was already over Zinzolin, team plasma lost, just accept it, you are done," Bianca replied firmly,

"You're wrong!"

Zinzolin looked at his fainted cryogonal on the ground, it filled his eyes with rage.

"Who do you think you are?! You are nothing compared to me, we aren't done yet, by far!"

"You're right, we aren't done, you're going to tell me everything you know about Grimsley and what he is planning to do,"

"what the hell are you talking about?" Zinzolin asked, genuinely disconcerted,

"just stop playing games with me Zinzolin, this isn't a joke, lives are at stake,"

"yes they are..."

He reached into his pocket and produced a white plastic gun, with a small empty flask made of glass attached to it below the handle. He pointed it at his unconscious cryogonal and pushed a button on the side of the handle. Suddenly the flask started filling with a light blue liquid as blue aura emanated from the ice pokemon. Zinzolin then aimed the gun at chandelure and fired it, immediately freezing Bianca's pokemon whole, causing it to fall violently on the ground.

"And now it's your turn," he said as he aimed the gun at an absolutely horrified Bianca. Zinzolin put his hand on the trigger once more and smiled, showing most of his yellow teeth.


	3. Evil calls

Zinzolin pointed the gun at Bianca, who sensed he wouldn't hesitate to shoot her. Bianca didn't move a muscle, fearing it would make Zinzolin react and fire at her. She apologized to Cheren in her mind, for failing to save him. She also apologized to herself for failing to save herself. Then she forgave herself, only because she knew she might not get another chance to do so in the future. Then she heard a loud noise, and closed her eyes. It lasted less than a second. She felt nothing, she garnered enough courage to open her eyes at the same time a white beam made out of light knocked the gun out of Zinzolin's hand, mildly injuring it in the process. Zinzolin screamed angrily as he grabbed his injured hand surrounded by smoke. He and Bianca turned their eyes to find Colress walking toward them with a magnezone by his side.

The rage on Zinzolin's eyes disappeared and was replaced by fear; his eyes looked like plates, which, along with his wet forehead, showcased perfectly his harrowing state. He ran away like a coward, leaving his unconscious cryogonal on the ground. Meanwhile chandelure was still frozen on the ground, so Bianca chose to stay and look after her pokemon instead of running after the fugitive, who then disappeared from the scene.

Colress approached her without minding Zinzolin in the least. Bianca looked at him right in the eyes and Colress sensed her wariness, so he calmly showed her his open hand and then directed a rather mechanical smile at her, as warm and inviting as he could make it. He reached into his coat pocket and produced an ice heal, and Bianca felt relieved. Colress knelt down next to her and healed her pokemon, earning an earnest nod and a faint smile from Bianca. Afterwards he stood up and went to search for the laser gun while Bianca stayed down petting the convalescent chandelure.

"So you are Colress, right? You dissolved team plasma," Bianca said, then she called chandelure back and stood up,

"yes, and this is mine," Colress answered as he picked up the gun,

"you made that, why?"

"I once sought to discover what I foolishly envisioned as the full power of pokemon, I was adamant to find it, by any means necessary, even by ignoring their wishes, their will. To achieve that I created many gadgets like this one to aid me in my research."

He put the gun inside his coat and in turn got out a revive, which he then used on the cryogonal, which woke up and started hovering above them confused. Then Colress continued,

"I saw my errors, stopped my research and put everything away, although it seems I didn't hide it well enough, it's a shame that any idiot like Zinzolin can use it for the wrong reasons, again. Don't worry about him anyway he shouldn't be a problem, at least for now. Apparently someone else has reformed the team and that constitutes the real problem,"

"Grimsley," Bianca whispered loud enough for Colress to hear,

"I wish I knew what he's planning to do, I need to lay low for a while so there's not much I can do. There aren't many of places where I can show my face at the moment, perhaps that will never change, I am now cursed by my past."

Bianca suddenly thought about showing Cheren's letter to Colress, and intuited he wouldn't believe her, or anything that was written on it, even though it contained irrefutable proof of Grimsley's villanous nature.

"He has my friend," Bianca said, and she could sense the hopefulness, the trust, and the fear coming out of her with her voice,

"what did he do?" Colress said with suspicious indifference,

"He wanted to investigate Grimsley's actions,"

"is that so?"

Bianca decided to take a leap of faith, she produced the letter from her purse and showed it to Colress, then waited for him as he took his time to read it. He was astonished, although not for the reasons Bianca would've thought. Because, although Colress' intentions were sincere, he was still used to keeping secrets. All he wanted was to leave his past behind. His undying curiosity had led him through a dark path that he then abandoned, although it still had a hold of him, and now it seemed like Grimsley wanted to ruin his attempt to reform by bringing team plasma back to everyone's memory, for seemingly no reason at all. Colress would do anything he could, with everything he had, to stop him. But he didn't have very much.

"Sadly this doesn't say what he plans to do with the remnants," Colress said apathetically, "but it's a shame, for your friend I mean, I'm sorry," he then added with embarrassment, "I must put a stop to this somehow,"

"me too, that's why I came to see Rood, but he's nowhere to be found,"

"and you are to stop Grimsley? By yourself?" Colress asked inquisitive,

"I must," she answered.

He adjusted his glasses, the reflection of the sun caused them to turn white for a second. He took a pause to choose the right words in his mind.

"Well...it seems that both you and I are in luck then, I may have a plan to stop Grimsley, or rather, a plan for us to stop him together,"

"would you care to share it with me?"

"With pleasure, basically it involves a believably young subject, you, infiltrating Grimsley's sad joke of a team, getting some evidence of the fact that he has a group of people and that he plans to use them for evil, and that's it, then I'll have the right to take him down, no more operating outside the law for me, what's more, they'll have a reason to stop him too,"

"that sounds like a well thought out plan, unfortunately it needs someone who can actually carry it out to completion, that is, not me," Bianca sorrowfully admitted to herself, out loud.

"You are underestimating your abilities, or overestimating those losers, or both, I'm certain you can do it," Colress replied, although he was unsure if he really believed what he was saying. He was only sure he needed to convince her to help him.

"How would I infiltrate the team anyway?" Bianca asked back, still unsure,

"you would dress up and pass yourself as a previously desultory team plasma grunt, show up at the door and ask to join the group, as easy as that,"

"wouldn't they realize that I'm not part of the team and I've never been?"

"No, these guys aren't exactly scientists, you are giving them too much credit, besides, I was the leader of said team and I'll tell you everything about them, train you to pass yourself flawlessly as one of them...so, will you do it?"

Bianca looked at the cryogonal as it approached Colress. He raised his index finger and Cryogonal hovered above it rather peacefully. Bianca empathized with Colress, although it wasn't hard for her to empathize even with the lowliest and most mischievous individuals, at least in some regard. But she cared about him specially because she knew what it felt like to be haunted by your past.

Bianca also kept secrets, she was looking for a way to atone for what she thought of as transgressions, which in reality were nothing more than clumsy and innocent mistakes. She would never admit it, her tender and righteous heart would not be appeased. In her mind she was no better than the worst criminal. Besides, she needed to act fast, for Cheren's sake, and Colress' plan was better than any plan she could have come up with on her own.

"...I'll do it", she finally said, completely certain it was the right answer.


	4. Look closer

Having sealed her fate, just one day later Bianca was standing outside victory road. She was wearing the infamous gray unitard, formerly worn by common members of team plasma, with a black vest, black gloves and black boots, as well as a black beret on her head and a mouth mask covering the lower half of her face, all courtesy of Colress. It was like a key that allowed her to enter the depths of hell, masquerading as one of its cursed inhabitants. She walked into the pitch black darkness, her body was consumed by the gloom of the place, her back disappeared into the shadows as she moved deeper inside.

She searched for any trace of the team's suspected hideout around the passageways and bridges of the cave, sneaking her way away from trainers and wild pokemon, not because she couldn't beat them, but because no one would believe that a simple grunt could, and she had to keep up appearances. The famous cave, which preceded the very own pokemon league, connected with the abandoned ruins of N's old castle, which itself connected directly with the league, where Grimsley's tower was located.

Once Bianca reached the ruins of the castle she could sense how the atmosphere around her changed, there was an eerie vibe on the air, it was objectively colder than on the cave. The whole place smelled like old furniture. The barely visible gothic architecture evoked sorrow and decay. The walls seemed green and damp and the floor was slippery. It was a tragedy, how everything around her had been built with a poisonous intention and was destroyed right after it had been finished. It was a perfect physical representation of a doomed dream.

A big boulder appeared on Bianca's path as she walked through the decrepit rooms of the castle. Unfazed by it, she promptly called her stoutland out to move it out of the way, and the fluffy pokemon diligently completed the task without a problem. Perhaps Stoutland performed its task too well, because it carried the boulder all the way until it crashed into a wall, causing the shell of the former castle to tremble dangerously. The mild earthquake caused rocks and rubble to fall from the ceiling. One of the seemingly more well kept walls fell down whole. Bianca cowered with terror thinking that forsaken place would become her grave, and immediately called her stoutland back into its pokeball to protect it from the ensuing danger.

But the trembling stopped, and all of the other structures stayed firm in their place. Bianca took a deep breath and felt the dust caused by the shaking right on her nose. Then, after regaining her composure, she became suspicious of the fallen wall and went to check on it. Bianca discovered that the wall was only a fake front that someone had placed there to hide a set of stairs, which clashed jarringly with the rest of the ruins. They were clean, even luxurious, with black steps and red steps one after the other, and a very bright light at the end coming from the floor at the top.

With her eyes dead set on the light above her, a resolute Bianca went up the stairs, but she failed to realize just how bright the light was, and it momentarily blinded her at the same time she felt a rush of anxiety creep through her. Her sight came back, and to Bianca's surprise, as well as her disappointment, she discovered that the source of the light was a plain and short lamp pointed directly at the stairs. She rubbed her eyes, then identified two figures standing right next to the lamp. To the left, a brunette boy, wearing fancy black shoes, fancy black pants, a red vest, white buttoned shirt with a black bow tie, and black sunglasses. And to the left of him, a black door with a red doorknob.

"Hey! What are you doing here? Who told you you could just come here and start destroying the property?" The boy said, he was visibly irritated. And he became even more incensed when he took a good look at Bianca and what she was wearing, "Is this a joke, are you messing with me? Cause I hate when people mess with me, I really do,"

"excuse me, what do you mean?" Bianca replied, thoroughly confused,

"what do you mean what do I mean? You know exactly what I mean, because you are messing with me, this will not go well for you if you don't take this seriously,"

"I swear I'm not messing with you, my name is...uhh...Colette, and I heard that the old team is getting back together under new leadership, but I didn't know where or when," Bianca replied, trying to carry on with the plan with which she and Colress had come up,

"first of all, why did you hesitate when you said your name, you don't know your own name or what? Secondly, we are not getting team plasma back together this has nothing to do with them, and third, you suck and you are messing with me so why don't you turn back, change your clothes, burn the wicked rags that you have on, and then come back with a bit more respect and appreciation,"

"please I was just a bit confused, let me just tell you what happened to me, I, like a lot of people, chose to stay with team plasma once N left us, and then got the shorter end of the stick when Colress disbanded us. He sent me, along with the rest of the fleet 15, to work at as an assistant at the pokemart, but things didn't quite work out for me and I was let go."

There was a pregnant pause. Bianca slowly took off the mouth mask and felt her lips shake out of nervousness. The boy lowered his head and took his sunglasses off, and put them on his vest, revealing a pair of aggressive yet young looking brown eyes,

"wow, sorry," he finally said, "I'm Jonny by the way, my cousin Gino was on fleet 15, you know Gino?"

"Gino?" Bianca quivered, "Oh yeah...He's great,"

"whoa!"

Jonny audibly smacked his forehead, he got really excited, "that's right they've always said that about Gino, I suppose you did not keep in touch with him,"

"nope,"

"yeah it's quite sad what's happened to him,"

"oh no, what happened?"

"He became...a backpacker,"

"oh?"

"Yeah, such a shame, I myself was left aimless and quite frankly hopeless after team plasma was done, I couldn't land a job and my mom had rented out my room, and as you know you can't just throw your tenants out for no reason at all...luckily Grimsley appeared out of nowhere and gave me, and all of us, a chance, as well as a place to stay,"

"...do you think he could give me a chance?"

"Totally! Come right in I'll get you settled in myself." Jonny went for the door, but stopped just before the tip of his finger touched the handle, "just one thing, don't ever mess with me,"

"you got it," Bianca replied with relief, right after furtively clearing her throat. Her back was covered in cold sweat, she could feel how the sense of imminent danger left her and gave her a moment to breath safely.

Jonny opened the door with his right hand and waved his left hand toward it, telling Bianca to get in. Behind it was a big room, almost as big as a contest hall. The floor was covered in vividly red carpet on its entirety, and there were many tables dispersed over the wide area, each and every one of them covered with a green soft cloth on their surface, with six black chairs with golden finishes around every one of them. And above every table, a potent lamp showcased them and the people sitting on the chairs rather gracefully, all of this while classy piano music resounded pleasantly all around the room. Jonny took Bianca's hand and led her through the room, crossing through the tables filled with people wearing the same red and black outfit as Jonny; all of them. All eyes turned on Bianca, she felt the annoyance, anger, and sorrow that her outfit brought forth from everyone in the room which seemed endless. She was certainly in hell.

"Say," Bianca started talking once she remembered her objective, "I heard through some rumors that someone around here had captured a gym leader and was holding him captive, some people said it was Grimsley,"

"oh, that annoying guy, yeah, he escaped,"

"wait what?!" Bianca couldn't help but shout rather loud, from the sudden astonishment,

"he was a gym leader? Hm...anyway, indeed he escaped," Jonny continued nonchalantly, "I mean Grimsley let him go, but yeah, he was a jerk so I'm glad he's out of here."

They reached the edge of the room, where there was a table double the size of all the others. It only had one black and golden chair with its back facing the room. The light above it was not as strong as the ones above the other tables, giving that side of the room a greater sense of elegant duskiness and an even more noirish look. Jonny stopped and let go of Bianca's hand,

"but," she continued, "I heard that Grimsley had taken him as his prisoner,"

"ha!"

Bianca heard a laugh coming from the only chair at the larger table. She hadn't noticed there was someone sitting there already. It was difficult for her to notice who it was with all of the shadows that surrounded the table. It seemed as if whoever it was had called the darkness around him to hide his appearance, although Bianca had elaborated a guess as to the identity of the man of shadows, and it terrified her. She identified his body and stared at him hoping to get his attention, because her capacity for speech had been spontaneously disabled, perhaps by his presence, either way he didn't turn back. And then there was silence.


	5. At his throne

"Here he is," Jonny broke the silence, "our leader Grimsley."

With his back still turned to them, Grimsley took a generous sip of his crimson colored drink. He took his time, and continued drinking without restraint until his glass was empty. Only then he bothered to turn and face Bianca. His mouth was closed and expressionless, his blue eyes were only half open. He was unfazed by her presence, it seemed as if he already knew she'd be there at that very moment. Bianca was speechless, she was expecting to encounter him at some point, in fact she was hoping to find him. And yet, even though she had him right in front of her, Bianca was one step away from falling apart at his presence.

"Hello Bianca, thank you for coming," Grimsley said without a care in the world, making it harder for Bianca to utter a simple word. She was wholly at his mercy; she sensed he didn't consider her a threat, perhaps he did not mind her at all, there was no need to worry about her. This thought partially alleviated her grief; Partially.

"How do you know my name?" Bianca asked cautiously.

Grimsley touched his forehead, his boredom was palpable. "Please, let's not go through this," he said, "...I know things, not many, but some...the gym leader sent out a letter so I was expecting someone would come, something had to happen soon enough, it was unavoidable I guess, and, well...Cheren doesn't have many friends, does he? So, here you are, how's that for an answer? Is the mysticism lost?"

"What did you do to him?!" Bianca barely managed to stop herself from attacking Grimsley on the spot. She knew any attempt would be futile, her best option was to wait, for something, anything, to change her currently hopeless situation.

"Wait," Jonny interrupted, "her name isn't Colette?"

"No Jonny, she was just messing with you, her name is Bianca, she's one of professor Juniper's many adorably submissive assistants."

Bianca's eyes opened wide, filled with shame as she looked at Jonny. Meanwhile he looked back at her with disbelief, and anger.

"But it's okay," Grimsley continued, "everybody makes mistakes, and here we give everybody a second chance, unlike your entrancing friend Cheren. He wouldn't give us a simple chance to explain what we have going on here, so I made him stay here for a little while so he could see it for himself,"

"team plasma has had more than one chance," Bianca added scantily,

"I told you this has nothing to do with team plasma!" Jonny exclaimed as he made both his hands into fists,

"look," Grimsley waved his open hand downwards, telling Jonny to calm down, "once I saw that Cheren was too full of himself and would never change his closed mind I let him go, he'll probably say he escaped though, I'd let him have it if I were you."

A girl holding a tray filled filled with glasses approached the group and handed Bianca a glass of juice. She gave her a rather forced smile and then left them.

"As for you," Grimsley continued, "I think you'll be a bit more open minded than Cheren, you'll be willing to, at the very least, listen to what we have to say, won't you?"

"Do I have a choice?" Bianca replied as she reached the glass to her nose and smelled its scent: simply sitrus berry juice.

"You have two choices, you can choose to stay, and stay, or you can choose to leave, and see what happens, no harm will come to you either way,"

"ha," Bianca laughed sarcastically, "how do I know if you are telling the truth and Cheren has in fact escaped?"

"I guess you can't be sure, can you?"

Jonny looked directly at her, "I told you not to mess with me and yet you did but guess what, I'm willing to give you another chance,"

"what do you have to lose?" Grimsley added.

Bianca looked at the glass again and pondered her two choices. Even if what he said about Cheren was true, she still had to uncover the reason as to why Grimsley had taken over the remnants of team plasma, so it could be decided if an elite 4 member was to be publicly admonished, and his true colors, whatever they might be, uncovered. Still, Bianca hadn't decided if she believed what he was saying or not, he could easily be plotting her death as they spoke. Regardless, Bianca didn't have many options.

"Fine, I want to join," she ultimately said, filled with doubt and uncertainty.

Grimsley said nothing, he just snapped his fingers. Then he stood up and left the room. Another girl appeared and handed Bianca a set of clothes just like hers and everyone else's, then led her around the room all the way to a red door on the edge. It turned out to be a bathroom with five stalls and no urinals, probably the women's; it seemed like these people were more organized than Bianca first thought. Bianca went into the stall farthest from the door to change, unfortunately for her, the clothes that she was given were too small for her figure, but not because she was fat, in the least. Nevertheless the girl still had to bring her another set of the right size, which fit her nicely. She was officially in, although it couldn't be counted as a victory in any way given that her cover was immediately blown, right after she arrived no less.

After Bianca put on her new uniform a pack of girls went into the bathroom, led by a significantly shorter girl with her black straight hair tied into a ponytail by a red ribbon. She had black eyes, a pointy nose, and overall an aggressive, yet pleasant appearance. Bianca feared for her safety, she stood outside the stall with her hands stuck to her sides, without moving a muscle, as the group approached her, although they looked like they didn't seek to cause harm. The girls smiled at her sincerely for the first time, then proceeded to set the team plasma uniform that Bianca had brought in on fire right there in the bathroom, producing a lot of smoke.

A tall, startled redhead walked in holding a fire extinguisher. She hurried to put the ensuing fire out and gave every girl in the room, including Bianca, a smack on the head,

"we are still inside a cave idiots!" She then said filled with rage,

"oh yeah, I totally forgot about that," said the black haired one as she patted the back of her head.

The pack of pyromaniacs rubbed their heads to mitigate the pain from the redhead strikes. Then they got out of the bathroom, leaving Bianca alone with the redhead while the smoke dissipated.

"I can't blame them too much I guess, burning these is quite fun," the redhead said, rubbing her forehead in frustration, "I'm Lucia by the way." She amiably extended her hand to Bianca and they shook hands and traded smiles,

"I'm Bianca, so I take it you really hate team plasma now?"

"Yeah, I suppose so, I mean we do hate it, specifically because it ruined our lives. After it was disbanded there was nothing left for me, it was obvious I had picked the wrong side, our own families cut us off, well at least mine did,"

"so that's why you are at it again?"

"No, we aren't a team, and I believe we aren't even most of the remnants of team plasma, we are just a small group of people working for the only person willing to hire us. There's the first group that separated from the team and joined N, the ones who instantly became good or something stupid like that, as if they had been immediately vindicated and justified to kick our asses. And then there's a second group which for some very stupid and useless reason is still loyal to Ghetsis even though he might be dead, I don't know. So that makes us the remnants of the remnants of the remnants, who just aren't looking for trouble anymore. I'm not saying that we are not to blame for what we did, but we kind of paid for it in the sense that we are like nothing now, and I don't know what else to tell you, sadly team plasma was our side, we lost, the end."

The black haired girl who started the fire went back into the bathroom, holding her right hand up,

"hey Lucia, you owe me a smack on the head, come here," she said as she approached menacingly,

"you deserved it, you could've killed us," Lucia replied as she braced for the incoming hit,

"nope, come here."

She sprinted toward Lucia and promptly smacked her in the head, then celebrated while Lucia just stood there unfazed, done with her. Now satisfied, the short girl approached Bianca and extended her hand to her, causing Bianca to flinch,

"dude, what's wrong with you?"

She forcefully grabbed Bianca's hand and shook it, "my name is Helma, nice to meet you, I'm trying to be a human person why do you have to be like this?" She said,

"Hi, my name is Bianc…!",

"Haaa!" Helma screamed right at Bianca's face and ran out of the room, leaving Bianca with her hands covering her mouth and her eyes opened wide,

"I apologize for that, she's one of the weirder ones, but she is...loyal," said Lucia, "some of us did not have a place in the world even before we joined team plasma...on second thought that's most of us...let me show you around."


	6. Persuasion

Bianca came out of the bathroom wearing what seemed to be the remnants official uniform. A black pair of fancy shoes, which felt more comfortable than they looked, black formal pants, red vest, white shirt, and a black bowtie which unified the set of clothes as an ensemble just like the one a casino worker would wear.

Lucia came out of the bathroom after Bianca and stood right in front of her, examining her outfit from head to toe with a serious expression on her face. After a few seconds she grabbed Bianca's bowtie and adjusted it to perfection, then gave her a wide smile and nodded approvingly, and Bianca smiled back.

"Well well well!" Jonny shouted from the back of the room, "look who comes back begging for forgiveness!"

Lucia rolled her eyes, Jonny was at it again. She and Bianca walked up to Grimsley's chair at the larger table, where Jonny was sitting, drinking some pink juice with a silly straw.

"I'm sorry Jonny," Bianca said once she was next to him, "I needed to get in any way I could, my friend Cheren had sent me a letter telling me that Grimsley was holding him captive, I needed to do something."

Jonny took a rather aggressive sip from his glass and then continued, "Grimsley has done a lot for us, without him I literally don't know where I'd be, so hearing you say that about him makes me quite angry",

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I just..."

"Oh please, he's a vindictive jerk don't listen to him," Lucia said as she waved her hand, dismissing Jonny,

"you know what," Jonny ignored Lucia completely and continued, "you just wanted to save your friend, right? You didn't mean to be mean, I guess that makes everything better and we can become friends now,"

"really?"

"Ha, no way,"

"hey!" Helma approached the group pointing at Jonny, "You are in Grimsley's chair, get out of there,"

"anyone can sit here when he's not around, I've told you this a million times, what's wrong with all of you today?"

Jonny finished his juice and took out the silly straw from the glass, then put it inside his vest, "I've done nothing wrong, it was her," he pointed at Bianca, as close to her as he could without actually touching her, "she betrayed my trust and it won't be long before she betrays yours too,"

"you sound like that guy Cheren," Lucia said, and her words made Jonny's face turn bright red, "anyway, she has a name, it's Bianca,"

"I don't care," Jonny exclaimed, "I'm going to call her Colette because that is what she told me her name was."

They all looked at Bianca.

"I love that name", she shrugged,

"well Colette, tell us about yourself," Lucia said as she put her arm around her,

"about me?"

Bianca rubbed her chin and then looked at the ground, "well, I am a pokemon trainer, and I work as a research assistant for professor Juniper,"

"the, professor Juniper?" Helma enthusiastically asked, "what's she like?"

"well she's very smart and very nice, and really good at her job, I mostly just take care of her pokemon while she's away, and also when she's there, and I also take care of her schedule,"

"so you are like her nanny secretary?" Jonny cheekily asked,

"She said she's an assistant you idiot," Helma said before punching Jonny on the shoulder, "didn't you hear her?"

"guys come on," Lucia intervened, "and you like working with her?"

Bianca nodded, "I love it...for the most part, I guess what I love the most about it is being outside with the pokemon, out on the field. Sometimes I hand them to young trainers and teach them how to capture more of them,"

"do you think I could ever meet her?" Helma asked,

"professor Juniper? Yes of course."

Jonny returned Helma's punch right to her shoulder, then she returned it to him once more, harder. Jonny screamed, with pain visible on his face, and started rubbing his shoulder, then he grunted, "why would you ever want to leave this place? Everyone out there hates us, and Grimsley has made this place just for us,"

"yeah, you are right," Helma replied as she thrashed her fingers, and Bianca could notice a sorrowful tone in her voice.

"We should check out his room," Lucia blurted out out of nowhere, prompting the three guys to direct their wide open eyes at her.

Helma was the first to call her friend out, "what are you talking about? No way, Jonny was just talking about how he has done a lot for us and made this place just for us and you want to sneak into his room, you are an idiot!"

"Sure," Lucia continued nonchalantly, "however, as our leader, I think he should be a bit more open with us, at the very least I don't think he should mind us snooping around,"

"alright, she sold me there guys, we don't know if Grimsley is even his real name, I'm in," Jonny said, "are you in Colette?"

"...I don't know," Bianca hesitated to answer, she now had a lot more questions in her head than when she first started her mission, which was going horribly; she was completely out of her element.

"Hey, remember when you lied to Jonny?" Lucia asked Bianca as she took her arm off of her, "do you want him to forgive you or not? This is your chance to gain our trust, besides, don't you want to make sure that your friend Cherentz isn't here?"

"well yeah but..."

"but nothing, we are giving you a second chance, so why don't you take it?"

Bianca knew what she had to say, it was the logical next step towards accomplishing her mission,

"I'm in."

"...You guys are crazy," Helma brushed them off however, and started walking away,

"you'll come with us too," Jonny said as he intercepted her,

"no way,"

"don't be a purrloin," he added,

"I'm not, it's not cool to barge into other people's rooms without their consent, why don't we just ask him first?"

"that's what a purrloin would say," Lucia taunted her as she caught up to her too, "come on Colette convince her to come with us,"

"uhhh...okay," Bianca complied, she gave in to Lucia's orders way easier and quicker than Helma, "please accompany us Helma...the more the merrier,"

"no, what do you think he'd do to us if he caught us?" Helma said, she started hesitating,

"what would he do?" Bianca asked genuinely curious,

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out," Helma answered,

"just come with us." Lucia grabbed her by the shoulders and carried her back to the small group,

"peer pressure!" Screamed Jonny right on her face,

"fine," Helma finally said, "he'll probably woop our asses though..."


	7. Validation and certainty

The group of curious investigators roamed around the ruins of the castle. Jonny explained to Bianca that a few of the walls around were only fronts for some other rooms, one where the girls slept, another one for the boys, and one for Grimsley's center of operations, aka where he went to doze off, which was their destination.

Everybody knew where it was located, in one of the most decayed, almost collapsed hallways on the ruins. Lucia stopped right in the middle of the hallway, inspected the frail looking walls from top to bottom, then stuck her ear on the wall to her right, right on its middle point, and started knocking on it. After a few knocks she smiled and pointed at the spot right next to her,

"it's right here, does anyone want to knock down this fake wall?" She asked,

"how do you know it's fake?" Jonny asked back,

"you'll have to trust me".

Jonny nodded with a smile on his face and got right next to the wall, he feinted a punch against it and instead did a gesture with his open hand, inviting someone else to try,

"Helma, you want to headbutt this wall?"

"Why don't you do it?" Helma asked in return,

"knowing this witch," Jonny pointed to Lucia, "I will punch a very hard wall and injure myself, and nothing else will happen,"

"come on, don't you trust me?" Lucia defended herself,

"ha, no," Jonny added.

Helma shrugged her shoulders and, without skipping a beat, went ahead and headbutted the wall, taking it down whole with ease,

"she wasn't lying," said Helma as she dusted off her black hair, "this time."

The fallen wall revealed a seemingly deep hole, which somehow looked darker than anything outside of it. The four of them went in cautiously and stumbled upon a door just a few steps ahead. In pitch black darkness, Jonny identified the handle of the door and tried to open it, but failed,

"it's locked," he whispered to the girls.

Helma tried to reach for him but, as she wasn't able to see anything in the dark, and as she was considerably shorter than Jonny, she ended up grabbing his face, and Jonny contained the urge to cry in protest. Helma then pushed him away, not minding him in the least, and moved ahead to try and open the door herself, but also failed.

"It seems Jonny's right for once," Helma said,

"What are you talking about? I'm always right but you guys never listen to me,"

"yeah mention one time," Helma challenged Jonny,

"well...what was that?" Jonny silently warned the group as steps were heard behind them, then another noise, like that of a small rock falling off to the ground,

"I heard that too," Bianca said, "we should go,"

"nah, we've got this far, let me", Lucia said making her way to the door. She identified the lock and started tampering with it, producing minimum noise.

"Are you sure you can do it?" Bianca said, she had grown increasingly anxious,

"what's taking so long?" Jonny asked with a remarkably calmer tone,

"just a sec, I've done this before, this one won't take long."

Seconds later, everyone heard the noise of the door unlocking. They saw the silhouette of Lucia standing up and turning to them, they noticed a small and shiny metal stick on her hand, and then her smile,

"are you ready?" She said, while the others could only see a glimpse of her white and shiny teeth moving as she spoke,

"I'm kind of second guessing myself guys, I don't know about this." Bianca took a few steps backwards,

"just open it already, we have not come this far for nothing," Helma added.

Lucia grabbed the cold handle, she hesitated for a moment, then pulled it toward her producing a loud screeching noise no matter how little she moved it,

"shoot, whatever at least it is open now," Lucia said as she opened the door on its entirety without looking inside, "do you think anybody heard that?"

"That's the least of our problems," Jonny whispered.

Lucia did not turn to look inside and instead kept staring at a startled Bianca. She slowly walked toward her without looking back, and once she was right next to her she looked at the door. Inside it, three different sets of shiny white fangs were showing, with complementary aggressive growls that became louder as the seconds went by. Another louder growl was heard, their paws clashed on the ground and their fangs got bigger, then the mouths of three houndooms were revealed by the shadows, and their full bodies slowly came out the door, drooling from their open mouths, with visible anger in their eyes.

The guys slowly backed away until they made their way out of the hole in the wall, although the houndooms followed them outside at the same rhythm. Bianca reached for her pocket and took out a pokeball, and when Helma saw her she did the same. Immediately afterwards the houndooms barked loudly, two of them sprinted all the way to Bianca and Helma and ripped their pokeballs away from them with their teeth, without injuring them in a noticeable way.

"Ahh! Dude!" Helma felt a swift blow on her hand, and less than a second later her pokeball was gone,

"we're doomed!" Lucia exclaimed,

"that's it, make a run for it!" Jonny shouted, causing the group to let the panic completely overtake them at the same time the houndooms barked ear piercingly loud and chased after them. Jonny, Helma, and Lucia ran to the left while Bianca ran to the right, but two houndooms promptly cornered her to the wall, while the third houndoom went after the rest. The lone houndoom barked louder and more violently than ever before and the three of them froze on the spot.

"Stand down," a voice was heard from inside the hole in the wall. The houndooms obeyed it and immediately stopped barking, then laid on the ground without taking their eyes away from the intruders. Suddenly, Grimsley himself came out of the shadows and looked around the scene. No trace of emotion could be discerned from the frozen expression on his face, but he could see everyone's naked souls as they quietly stared at him, with a fear in their eyes that only served to make their eyeballs look bigger. A subtle grin then appeared on his face,

"did you get lost?" He asked.

Terrified, Jonny and company caved in, "she made us come here it was her idea!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah she doesn't trust you she says Grimsley isn't even your real name," Lucia said as she stood up. She felt like her legs were made of jelly.

Helma and Jonny followed Lucia's gesture and slowly got back up. Helma cleaned some tears off her face and Jonny cleaned some drool off his mouth, then the three ran away while the indifferent houndoom followed them with its eyes.

Grimsley let the moment run, he looked relaxed and rather glad as he took the pokeball from the houndoom's mouth and then handed it to Bianca. Then, speechless, she put it back in her pocket; she knew there was no point in trying to fight her way out of there. Grimsley's mischievous smile then disappeared, his face changed to a more somber expression. He looked right into her eyes,

"carry on then, isn't that why you came here?" He then said, but Bianca couldn't answer, her whole body was paralyzed. She softly turned to look at the hole in the wall again, it was pitch black dark, although at the very end, right past the open door she noticed the faintest light which did not help her distinguish anything else inside.

"What is in there?" Bianca asked in a very low voice,

"why don't you take a look for yourself, there's no reason to be afraid of the dark,"

"I beg to differ," Bianca audibly gulped.

"That's because you have not been in there...go on then...get in."


	8. In darkness dwells

In full darkness, Bianca could only sense she was inside a small room, and could make up only the outline of some of the things in there. She had to admit to herself that the mystery filled her with a wicked sense of joy, she was eager to see everything inside. Bianca heard steps, and identified Grimsley's silhouette as he reached for the only source of light in the room, a very faint white dot on the wall, probably a switch. She then heard Grimsley turn the switch on and the instant flash blinded Bianca for a few seconds, causing her to cover her eyes with her hand. The ancient looking lamp above them was not even that powerful and it only produced enough light to lit the upper half of the things in the room, casting many shadows, but it still had quite an effect on Bianca seeing as she had spent so much time in almost complete darkness.

A few seconds later, Bianca's sight adjusted well enough for her to fully open her eyes. It was exactly what she thought of when she thought of the kind of room Grimsley would have. First she looked at the wall to her left, which was fully encompassed by a big bookcase filled with very old, worn out books. Bianca walked over and reached her eyes to read some of the titles,

"The outsider by Egbert Cinus, The captor in the meadow by P. J. Celadon," Bianca said out loud, "Existing and nullity by Francois-Phillippe Surpin," she read and then paused to see if Grimsley would add something, but he stayed silent. And with her back turned to him, her eyes on the books, Bianca became a bit embarrassed and a bit more nervous,

"have you read all of these?" She asked, trying to avoid the awkwardness she sensed was coming,

"some of them," Grimsley finally answered, fully aware that it would give Bianca a much needed break, "I've read at least some pages of every one of them though."

Bianca nodded and continued looking around, but stopped at the corner right next to the bookcase, where an anatomically correct human skeleton hanged from a hook stuck to the wall,

"that's fake right?" She asked, hoping for him to say the right answer,

"maybe".

Bianca swiftly turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised, Grimsley rolled his eyes and then closed them,

"of course it is...I guess...I don't have the right to get offended for you thinking it could be real, I use it to hang my clothes, that way it's easier to put them on after I iron them...is that good enough for you?"

"Yes, sorry", Bianca answered and turned back. Next to the skeleton, on the wall at the back of the room, there was a painting of Shauntal from the elite four. She was sitting classy on a black bench wearing her typical purple outfit with a closed book on her lap. Behind her a dark blue sky full of stars and the moon right above her, and below her darkened yellow grass with a few orange leaves scattered over it. She had a faint smile on her face and her cheeks were red. Her eyes looked to the ground and the light from the nightly sky reflected on her glasses. Bianca took her time to admire the painting and had to keep herself from smiling, because of the beauty of the painting, and because Grimsley had it up on the wall,

"...I...have no explanation." Bianca turned and listened to Grimsley talk, "Caitlin painted it and gave it to me, she thinks we'd make a good couple and spends a lot of her time letting her thoughts be known, to me,"

"and what do you think?" Bianca asked, then she immediately bit her lip and looked at the ground,

"he, you are just like her...all of you ladies, you are wonderful, beautiful on the outside as well as the inside..." Bianca's face became bright red in a second, "...I always tell her that I disagree with her," Grimsley continued, knowing exactly what he had done to Bianca, "because that means that I have an opinion about it, which drives her imagination wild, showing that I care...it's not like we did not try and see if there was something there...there's not, but the painting does look good, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

Bianca looked away from the painting, and next to it on the wall she found a stand with a glass case containing a desiccated purrloin. Its eyebrows were raised, as if it knew something Bianca didn't, and it had one of its front paws raised in a snooty fashion, as if the purrloin were saying it was more important than her,

"I did not kill him...in case you were wondering," Grimsley said before Bianca had the chance to ask anything, "he died a few years ago, and my peers thought it would be a good idea to preserve its body and present it to me as a gift...what a joke, he died and is gone, that's not him anymore that's just a pile of bones and fur, although I don't mind looking at it, that's why I kept my mouth shut and accepted it,"

"I'm so sorry," Bianca said with sorrow, then she kept inspecting the room.

Next to the glass case, on the corner, was an old desk. There were many loose, blank pages on top as well as a note pad with unintelligible symbols written on it. There was also a purple coffee mug with Grimsley's face on it, and a green, monstrous looking hand, which made Bianca give Grimsley a very sassy glance,

"it's a good paperweight," he said, and Bianca couldn't help but notice a trace of embarrassment on his face.

Finally on the wall on the right there was a table with a map on top. It showcased the zone encompassing the ruins of N's castle and the entirety of victory road and the pokemon league, but it had red and black dots and lines drawn all over it. Bianca remembered why she had gone there in the first place,

"that's a cool map," she said, with the knowingly despondent intention of revealing Grimsley's plan. She was certainly out of her element,

"sure," he said, not taking the weak, sad bait,

"alright, I'm not good at this," Bianca continued, "what is the endgame of this plan of yours?"

"My endgame? My endgame is to create a place where my evil can run rampant, where miserable mooks cursed by their past can gamble their money away and stay and sleep in their misery,"

"and you think they'll let you do that?"

"They will do what they will do and I will do what I will do, and whatever happens,"

"you go to jail,"

"maybe, but just so we are clear I'm not trying to take over the world or anything like that,"

"it seems you want to give people that idea," Bianca replied,

"I don't care, sure, because of the choices that I make and the circles on which I move, I could be considered evil, but that doesn't mean I want to cause harm, as a member of the elite 4 I am obliged to uphold order and justice after all. Most of the people here may be evil, and they may not want to change, but even if they did want to change, and even if they did change, Unova would not accept them back, they are irredeemable ghouls, so what incentive do they have to change, and if they are not going to then why can't they just stay here under my command and not hurt anyone?"

"That's a good question,"

"it is as easy as that, we can choose what we do and we are all responsible for our actions, you choose to do evil, they stop you and lock you away, you regret it and change your ways, they forgive you and it's all good, except they don't forgive you, very few people do, very few people can change their mind about freaks, so we stay locked away and keep the mayhem to ourselves."

Bianca listened attentively. Grimsley continued, "I think you'll change your mind about us, won't you?"

"It depends," she replied,

"if you could make people change the way they look at you, what would you change?"

"The way they see me, I guess, I'd make them take me seriously, instead of how they see me now, as a useless loser,"

"because you are not?"

Bianca blinked hard and looked at the ground,

"I'm not saying you are a useless loser, I am genuinely asking you what you think," Grimsley said,

"...I don't know," she answered, "I don't even know if I believe you, I think you are not telling me everything,"

"well that is all I will tell you, so you can leave if you want, and tell them what I am doing, letting a bunch of mooks crash in here for free and making them serve me drinks...or you could stay here for a while."

Bianca moved in front of the painting and looked at it again. Grimsley moved behind her, she could tell he could tell she was having a hard time trying to make up her mind.

"You could continue whatever it is that you think you are doing, then go ahead and tell whoever it is you need to tell, prove them you are not a loser," Grimsley said. He wasn't the most eloquent orator, and the ability to convince people to change their minds was not one found on his otherwise extensive repertoire, but he genuinely wanted to convince her to stay,

"I think you should care more about what you do, like, generally speaking," Bianca replied, looking straight at him earnestly,

"who says I don't care?"

"...I kind of hate you right now,"

"that's fine."

Bianca unwittingly let out a laugh, she closed her eyes and cursed herself for it in her mind,

"I just need to think a bit longer about this," she said as she looked at him again, "can I just stay a bit longer?"

"Of course, there are a few rules you need to learn however, the first one, no one is allowed in my room but me."

They smiled at each other, sincerely this time,

"I'm serious,"

"oh, of course."

Grimsley led Bianca out of the room and closed the door behind him. They got out of the hole on the wall and found no one else but Jonny, Helma, and Lucia, knelt down with their faces on the ground,

"we are sorry we lied to you," said Lucia, with her face still directed at the ground,

"yeah, it was all Helma's fault, not Colette's," Jonny added,

"HEY!" Helma screamed, then stood up, "this was your idea in the first place you mook, I'm gonna deck you," she grunted angrily before grabbing Jonny's head with both of her hands. She started shaking him up and down rather violently,

"ahh! Help! Help!"

"Anyway," Lucia continued as she stood up, not minding the one sided battle beside her, "our message got kind of bogged down by that but we are sorry, it was not Colette's fault, I mean not entirely."

Bianca smiled at them, and Lucia smiled back.

"Sure whatever," Grimsley dismissed them, "now get out of here please...who's Colette?..."

Meanwhile, away from the ruins, outside professor Juniper's laboratory, none other than Colress himself was surreptitiously peeping through the window with a worried expression on his face. He noticed an unpleasant, earthly smell that was not there moments ago, and then heard steps behind him,

"what are you doing here?" Colress heard behind him. He turned to find Cheren, the source of the unpleasant smell. Colress could tell it came from him because of the way he looked, overall a dirty person, tired, with leaves coming out of his pants and shirt, and missing one shoe,

"did a purrloin eat your tongue?" Cheren pressed, "I don't have time for this, I need to see Bianca immediately, it is a matter of the utmost importance,"

"Well," Colress answered, "I'm afraid you won't be able to see her just yet..."


	9. A priori

It took some work, but Colress managed to convince an unduly exasperated Cheren to go with him to a more secluded space, where he could explain his secret plan, as well as Bianca's situation, without any risk of intruding ears. There only he and the trees around them would have to deal with Cheren's horrid smell; he obviously had not showered in days. Colress proceeded to explain the current developments as well as the intentions behind them, how he had sent Bianca to Grimsley's lair with the objective of finding more about him, and what the remnants of team plasma were planning to do, and if they were in fact under his command. Because, to even suspect such a mischievous ploy from an elite 4 member, even if it was Grimsley, was not a light subject, and they all would be better off if nobody else found out about it, at least before they were certain of Grimsley's cryptic objectives.

Colress thought Cheren would understand- and hopefully calm down- once he learned of his and Bianca's plan, but he was wrong, and before Colress could finish his explanation Cheren furiously grabbed him by the collar and tried to lift him up. He failed, since not only was Colress much taller than him, but he was also too heavy for the out of shape, frail, and tired Cheren, who was then forced to communicate his anger with words,

"why the hell did you think that was a good idea?! Furthermore, why didn't you go yourself?"

"I certainly thought about it, albeit only for a fraction of a second," Colress replied coldly, and did nothing to move Cheren's hands away from his collar. Then he continued, "when I remembered that he, allegedly, has part of the remnants of team plasma with him, and seeing as I used to be their boss, a part of me inexplicably sensed something wrong with that otherwise brilliant idea, and I started harboring the slight suspicion that they might recognize me, and then act accordingly to my intrusion...but you're right I should have gone there myself, to see what those freaks were planning to do with my own eyes."

Cheren caught on his sarcasm, he inhaled violently and then let go of him, pushing Colress back, "keep joking you fool, I just escaped from his lair! He held me captive for days!"

"For how many?"

"Why do you care?"

"It is important for my investigation," Colress answered coldly, and Cheren directed a stare filled with scorn at him, but he did not seem to care too much.

"Who else knows about this?"

"who else knows about this? Who else? Who? Nobody! Nobody noticed I was gone, who really cares? I'll tell you who, Bianca, I knew she'd care, that's why I sent her a letter explaining my situation,"

"so that's why she needed to go..." Colress said as he adjusted his coat, he purposefully omitted telling Cheren that he had in fact read Bianca's letter, just as he omitted telling him about a few other things, that he would reveal later. At the moment he was very keen on finding out everything he could about Grimsley,

"I didn't mean for Bianca go in there just like that! you don't know what Grimsley is capable of, he'll lure you in, give you a false sense of security and get you to lower your guard so you won't be expecting his malicious strike,"

"what did he do to you?"

"He starved me, offered me only the grossest of meals and the nastiest of drinks and forced me to stay around his uncouth, physically coarse minions, luckily I was able to escape before he could finish me,"

"and how would he have done that exactly?"

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me so I could only imagine what awaited me, probably the worst of fates, nothing good can come from a man's silence, that much I know, what other reason would he have to keep that kind of people there with him?...I need to get Bianca out of there right now and stop him, and you must help me since it was you who sent her there in the first place, I guess I am not without blame either,"

"I'm way ahead of you." Colress smiled faintly and adjusted his glasses, "I wanted her to find out if the remnants were specifically working under his command, and what he was planning to do with them, I guess with you here that issue is resolved and I can continue with the plan, to be honest with you I'm just not comfortable knowing that that group of people is still operating in some capacity, like you said, nothing good can come from them,"

"fair enough, what's next?"

"I need to get in contact with someone first, so that gives you enough time to shower..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Bianca was getting a little too comfortable hanging around the remnants, in such a small amount of time no less. But a part of her, which she could not deny or dismiss as a fantasy, urged her to give her new _friends_ a chance; it was as much a rational decision as it was a visceral desire of hers, to stay. No less important was the fact that she enjoyed very much hanging out with Lucia and company, with whom she headed to meet on victory road, just outside the cave's entrance. There, Lucia, Helma, and Jonny stood right next to an impromptu snack stand made out of white cardboard, with some food on top, and poorly made money signs at the front,

"hey Colette!" Jonny shouted to Bianca as soon as he saw her approaching, "would you like some cheese? I'll give you a ten percent discount,"

"don't listen to him," Helma quickly added, "there's plenty of cheese in the hideout, err, I mean the...house, sorry...this is for the trainers and their Pokemon,"

"for both?" Bianca asked,

"well, I eat it," continued Helma, "so yes for both, anyway this is what we do sometimes to get some honest cash,"

"huh, that's great,"

"shut up someone is coming," Helma dismissed her and moved to attend the customer.

Just as she announced, a cool trainer with a blue colored bowl haircut, a black and orange ensemble, and a wide, kind of douchy smile on his face approached them. He put his hands on his hips without losing his smile,

"do you sell potions?" He asked, wasting no time,

"uhh...no sir," Helma replied, "but we do sell cheese which may or may not have the same revitalizing effect on your pokemon, and why not on you as well,"

"thanks but no thanks, I don't do cheese," the trainer rebuffed her,

"what do you mean you don't do cheese what does that even mean?"

"It means exactly that, did you know that pokemon, unlike humans, do not consume dairy products after the lactation period is over? There are recent studies which shed light on the fact that dairy products do not have any nutritional value to humans, or adult pokemon for that matter." The cool trainer rambled on about dairy products while Helma's ever present rage increased every time he uttered a word.

She turned her back on the trainer and looked directly at the guys, "I'mma kill this dude," she whispered to them not exactly in a low voice, and then turned back again to face the trainer. And right when she looked at him again she completely lost her cool.

"Hey ass wipe, you don't like cheese? Well guess what, cheese doesn't like you either, want some proof of that? Here!"

Helma grabbed a perfectly curated, tasty looking ball of cheese from the counter and raised her arm, while the cool trainer recoiled expecting the hit, but, before she could throw it at him Lucia grabbed her by the arm, and then took the cheese ball off her hand and gently placed it back on the counter with her free hand. Lucia then walked up to the startled trainer at the same time she blinked slowly, showcasing her long eyelashes and her big hazel eyes at the same time,

"you'll have to forgive my friend," she said, "she's very passionate about the products that we sell, as am I, isn't it hot today?" She stroke her long red hair and then took off her bowtie,

"not so much, no, but maybe, kind of," the trainer moved his collar with his index finger, "I would have caught the cheese ball just so you know, my dexterity is only rivaled by my ability to train pokemon, and I gotta tell you, I have very good eye to hand coordination,"

"I don't doubt it, tell me more," Lucia continued, trying to contain the urge to roll her eyes,

"alright shut it down!" An enraged Jonny moved between Lucia and the trainer, he put his hand right on Lucia's face and then pushed her away,

"what the hell dude!" Lucia cried in protest,

"shut up," answered Jonny, then he pointed to Helma while he addressed the trainer, "listen guy, this one wants to sell you cheese through violence, and this other one," he then pointed at Lucia, "is using her female...uhhh...femininity or whatever, that's not right and it ain't the reason why I got into this business, I'm just here to sell you cheese,"

"but I don't want cheese my friend," the trainer coolly replied,

"I'm not your friend, I don't even like you," Jonny replied back, "not only that but I also hate you, but we still can do each other a favor,"

"yeah, I doubt that mate,"

"I'm not your mate either, look, as I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, what we can do for each other is this, you obviously did not pack enough potions and are in dire need of some, and I am here selling cheese, so why don't you buy a few cheese balls from me, feed them to your pokemon, complete the faux maze that even a blindfolded toddler with his small and chubby hands tied behind his back could complete, go to the pokemon league, lose miserably, and then go cry to your mommy, how about that?...Tell me you don't need them."

Jonny's speech had erased the smile off the trainer's face and he was now gazing sadly at the ground. He sorrowfully reached for his pocket, took some coins out, and handed them to Jonny without looking at him, now with a frown on his face. Jonny took his money and turned around with a victorious flare, then with his head held high and without looking at the girls he grabbed a plastic bag with a smiley face from behind the counter and put some cheese balls inside it, then handed it to the trainer.

"Do you have any pokemon so I can crush you?" The trainer asked as he grabbed the bag,

"no, beat it," Jonny replied, and the trainer obeyed him and went into the cave with his head down.

"that's how you sell cheese," Jonny said triumphant,

"wow, I never thought it would be this complicated," Bianca openly rejoiced over him, quite impressed,

"It's a cutthroat business," Jonny finalized as his put his hands on his hips. Lucia and Helma on the other hand seemed to be done with him.

* * *

Colress, for his part, continued his covert activities with the ultimate goal of stopping Grimsley's clandestine operation, now with Cheren as an unexpected but certainly welcomed aid. He stayed in Nuvema town, where professor Juniper's lab was located, and stopped by a small restaurant to grab a cup of coffee, and to meditate about his next move. He sat at the counter by himself, buried deep in his thoughts. Immediately afterwards he was served a cup of coffee which released an alluring scent, perfectly concentrated, which then caught his attention, and he started taking sips whilst ignoring the stares from the curious locals mostly directed at his outfit. Suddenly, while he was again on a deep state of thought, Sabrina, the Saffron city gym leader from Kanto walked in and, after noticing her, a shocked Colress couldn't help but take a breath full of surprise at the same time some coffee ran down his larynx, effectively choking himself.

"you made the right choice by calling me," Sabrina said as she sat right next to him, not minding his current state of distress at all,

"how is it that you are here!? I spoke with you mere hours ago," Colress exclaimed after reincorporating,

"I have a place in Unova," Sabrina replied,

"but when I talked to you you were in Kanto!"

"Dude, drop it, I used my power to get here, remember who you are talking to, anyway as I was saying thank you for alerting me of this Grimsley fellow, whatever he's planning to do won't end well, of that I am certain,"

"I could've told you that," Colress said as he tried to clean some fresh stains off his coat, "I called you because...well...I had no one else to call, and as you know we've crossed paths before," he nervously adjusted his glasses and swallowed saliva, "obviously you do know, because...why wouldn't you remember? I mean you do have a memory...like everyone else...probably an even better memory than most people, you know, because of your focus on the power of the mind...anyway, more importantly I need someone with enough respect and public trust, obviously not me, to bring some gravity and seriousness to the revelation that Grimsley is indeed a serious threat,"

"well if that's the case I can do that but I'll need some hard evidence,"

"I already have it, he kept a local gym leader as his prisoner for a couple of days, he escaped and is more than willing to help,"

"ha, if that's the case then what makes you think that the locals will be able to stop him?"

"I just need a reason to take an elite 4 member down, then I'll do it myself,"

"nonsense, it will be me,"

"...why?"

"Because I've seen the future,"

Colress looked at her with a gaze equally confused and tired,

"I've seen them bring forth evil and destruction just like the last time, just like the time before that, and I've seen myself stopping them and causing Grimsley's downfall. This foretold revelation is as certain as this moment, and I will see it through…"


	10. A posteriori

After taking a much needed shower and checking back in with Colress for an update on the plan, Cheren called professor Juniper to his parents' house on Nuvema Town. There, he revealed everything to her. She listened attentively, and became increasingly anxious the more Cheren kept talking. During the narration she worried for him, she couldn't fathom the idea that the sweet and brainy kid that he would always be to her had to experience such a horrible nightmare, and during that time she fancied Grimsley to be the most despicable human in the planet.

Then Cheren got to Bianca's part and Juniper's hate became directed towards him. She rebuffed Cheren's claims, arguing that Bianca had in fact communicated her absence to her, and spoke of nothing except that she was okay and would return as soon as possible. But Cheren dismissed her arguments as another mischievous ploy of Grimsley, to deceive them, and spoke of Grimsley in a way that was nothing less of an assassination of his character. Juniper pondered if all of this could be true, and ultimately chose to believe Cheren's account, based entirely on the peculiarity of such an unusual situation.

It was not rare for Bianca to go on trips and leave work for a while. In fact it had been on Juniper's insistence to let Bianca go outside and relax, so as to not burn her spirit out. But the truth was that this time she had not heard a single word about that escapade from Bianca's mouth, only through a simple message, and when she became convinced that Bianca was in peril her anger towards Cheren became clear; he had taken her most delicate and fragile flower and had led it directly to the mouth of a vicious ursaring, it was almost unforgivable.

Juniper stopped Cheren midway through his account of the events that had transpired, and demanded that he rushed to the laboratory with her so that they could figure out what to do next with more care. They sprinted to the laboratory, which was at walking distance from Cheren's house, and as soon as Juniper opened the door Colress and Sabrina appeared on her sight, said nothing, and promptly got into the laboratory before her.

Juniper looked at Cheren but he looked away from her. She sensed foul play, however, after learning of Bianca's situation, the knowledge that every minute that passed was a minute she spent in danger greatly tormented her, so she went along with the ruse and told all of her assistants to leave the laboratory, leaving only the four people inside.

"I am very disappointed in you Cheren," Juniper said, and she could see the anger that her words caused on him,

"with all due respect professor," Cheren answered candidly, "you played an integral part in my instruction, you even gave me my first pokemon, however, I can't help but find the tone of your words patronizing and condescending, and quite frankly it is the same with everyone else, nobody ever seems to skip the opportunity to disparage and belittle me any time they see me, I am a gym leader! How much time will it have to pass before people start seeing me as one!?"

"You have to understand that you'll always be the same curious and eager boy to me, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you, perhaps it is because of that exact reason that I am disappointed,"

"well I am disappointed at myself too, because I couldn't stop Grimsley, but most of all because it was me who told Bianca to go there in the first place,"

"...I can see why you didn't want anyone to know that Grimsley kept you captive, you must not blame yoursel..."

"there will be plenty of time to discuss our feelings of guilt or otherwise," Sabrina interrupted, "for now let us focus on Grimsley,"

"you are right," the professor said as she put her index finger on her lower lip, "I had no idea this was going on, Cheren, how did you find out about Grimsley in the first place?"

"I received an anonymous letter alerting me of his intention to reform team plasma,"

"that was Colress." Sabrina said without any daintiness in her voice, and everyone turned to Colress,

"I didn't mean to tell him about that just yet", he said, while a single drop of sweat rolled down his cheek. His secret had been revealed. He was the one who sent Cheren to stop Grimsley, he was the one who sent Bianca to do the same. All he wanted was to leave his past behind him, and all Grimsley wanted was to bring it back, and for this Colress wanted nothing more than to make the man disappear, along with his past. He had never felt more powerless, he had to rely on others to accomplish his objectives for him, he felt like nothing. "...Everyone who knows I exist thinks of me, at the very least, as a villainous person, how was I supposed to convince anyone that a member of the elite 4 was planning to take over the world? Let alone go against him without any evidence?"

"Cheren could've been seriously injured, or worst," the professor said to Colress as she stared directly at him,

"fair enough," Cheren intervened, "you've got your evidence, why'd you call Sabrina then?"

"Because everyone will believe her when she tells them that Grimsley's trying to get the drop on them right from under their noses, and because she specializes in psychic pokemon, which makes sense when you remember that dark type trainers tend to be...let's put it nicely…pragmatic. Who should be more well versed on their trickery than psychic trainers?"

"Alright," the professor said as she crossed her arms, "what now?"

Sabrina walked up to the professor and touched her shoulder, "Now I need you to convince the local authorities to make me the lead agent in this matter,"

"I can't do that," the professor sorrowfully replied,

"yes you can," Sabrina insisted, "why did you think we let you in on this? If it were not for me you'd still be in the dark about everything...you can make it happen, do it for your assistant..."

* * *

Bianca sat down on the brown soil and rested her crossed arms on her bent knees, then took a very pleasant deep breath. It felt nice to be out of the cave for a change. She didn't need the sunscreen she always carried around, as the sun was covered by a group of clouds that seemed to be there just for her. It was so quiet outside that she could hear the sound of her own breathing, and only a faint wild pokemon noise away from her every once in a while. She moved her head up to the sky and closed her eyes, then kept taking deep breaths which felt increasingly better and more relaxing after each time.

"Excuse me," she suddenly heard and immediately opened her eyes wide. She was too relaxed to react, was still facing up and had her mouth still open. She moved only her eyes and searched for the source of the unwanted interruption, and found it to her right. It was a trainer wearing a blue jacket and gloves, and carrying a very large backpack,

"I'm so sorry to bother you ma'am, but I was wondering if you could point me to the right direction, I'm trying to find the pokemon league," the trainer said, looking down at her.

Bianca took notice of her position, she closed her mouth and shook her head a few times, then just pointed with her thumb to a cave entrance right behind her,

"thank you," the trainer said, and then continued with her trip.

It was awkward of course, she felt it, but Bianca was so used to awkward situations that she knew there was no point in getting embarrassed, and she could take solace in the fact that the awkwardness was mutual, she could see it in the trainer's eyes. Those moments of mutual sharing of feelings, even if it was involuntary, were always cherished by Bianca as worthy memories to keep, even if it had been unpleasant. Then she closed her eyes again...

"Listen man, I love you but you can stick a cork on it bro,"

Bianca heard behind her,

"I'll stick a cork in your eye dude how do you like that, huh?"

She raised her eyebrow and kept listening,

"well I don't like it,"

"well, too bad,"

"yeah I guess..."

"I am going to kill you."

Bianca opened her eyes once more, she thought of getting up and leaving but decided against it in fear that the two people arguing behind her would notice her, so she stayed put and hoped they wouldn't.

"For having a different opinion, I'd gladly die for that if it meant being an example of intolerance born out of ignorance,"

"what that means? Here, let's ask her."

Her fear became a reality and a moment later she had two guys wearing the same black and red outfit as all the other remnants standing right in front of her. To her right, a very short blonde boy with his hair parted in the middle, easy on the eyes, with big brown eyes and equally big eye bags that made it seem like he was wearing eye shadow. And to her left, a bald, otherwise young looking guy, rather tall, with a brown beard and gentle black eyes. The blonde boy was the first to speak,

"hey, you are Colette, right?"

"...yes," Bianca answered,

"cool, so my name is Popito and this bald dude next to me is Quincey,"

"pardon me?" Bianca asked after successfully containing a burst of laughter,

"yeah, my name is Popito, get over it,"

"Popeito?" Bianca asked him again at the same time she got on her feet,

"yeah, Po-PEE-to, Popito,"

"why did you choose such a stupid name? My name actually is Quincey by the way," the tall guy extended her hand to Bianca and both of them exchanged smiles as they shook hands,

"for the last time," Popito continued, "I didn't choose that name, it was given to me by a politoed when I fell into a lake and he saved me, also nice to meet you Colette,"

"likewise, you know, Colette isn't my real name either, I chose it because I really like it,"

"yeah but Colette is a real name that already existed,"

"shut up Quincey, anyway me and this guy were arguing...uhh...tell her Quincey,"

"sure, so this guy just hit me with a rock,"

"he did?"

"Yeah look," Quincey turned his back to Bianca to reveal a single stream of blood running from the back of his head unto a piece of cotton inside his collar,

"! oh my god!...Why'd you do that?"

Popito raised his arms up to his head, "I was throwing rocks at a garbage can, stopped for just a sec, then I threw another one and lo and behold, who walks by? This idiot,"

Quincey smiled and pointed at himself. Then Popito continued,

"hits him right in the dome, I was just minding my own business hanging out and having fun, so you can't really blame me, right Colette?"

Quincey spoke before she could, "I can totally blame you dude, I told you, maybe you didn't mean to hit me but you did, of course you don't go around trying to affect people but if you throw rocks around, and you end up hitting someone then you are absolutely at fault,"

"alright mister affect people, what about you and team plasma, you went around trying to freeze everyone and when you did it you didn't take the blame for it did you?"

"Yes we did! And we received a good pounding for it, and it hasn't ended, why do you think we are here?"

"I'm sorry," Bianca couldn't help but intervene, "are you going to be okay Quincey? Also, Popito, what do you mean by you and team plasma, weren't you part of team plasma too?"

"I'll be just fine, doesn't even hurt anymore," Quincey said,

"I was never part of team plasma," Popito said,

"what? Yeah you were, if not then why are you here?" Bianca asked with the utmost curiosity,

"well..." Popito looked at the sky, then started touching the tip of his index fingers with one another, "I...like to hang out in caves...it's quiet..."

"some regular folks are here by choice," Quincey added, totally serious, "they decided to join our group as we the remnants live here either on a partially self imposed exile, in atonement for our past transgressions, or just because nobody else wants us outside."

Bianca put both of her hands on her forehead and her face showed a wrinkled and confused frown,

"I thought you knew, with you hanging out with Helma and all that,"

"I didn't."

A rush of blood reached Bianca's brain, she rubbed her forehead and wished that Quincey and Popito would stop talking so she could think,

"alright Quincey, I am tired of arguing with you so let's just agree to disagree, you were not at fault for stepping in front of my rock's way, and I am not at fault for having fun, okay? Great,"

"everyone needs to learn about responsibility at some point man, you are very stubborn,"

"yes, but I am also a very sore loser,"

"guys," Bianca stopped them, "it was nice meeting you, let's chat again sometime." She reached into her pocket, took out her glasses and put them on. Then turned back and walked away as both guys happily waved at her.

Bianca was more confused than when she first got there, and yet at the same time it seemed like she had almost all the information she needed to make a decision as to what to tell Colress, and Cheren. On her way to find Helma around the ruins another idea came to her, there was something Grimsley was not telling her, she had felt that way ever since she talked with him on his room, and it bothered her more than ever before, so instead of looking for Helma she headed to Grimsley's room.


	11. Beneath a shadow

"What if the houndooms are in there?"

"It is a possibility, one that will not stop me,"

"no, I get that, what I meant was, what if they kill us? That's all,"

"Please Lucia I need to know, Grimsley would've never trained them to kill...us, right?"

Lucia looked at Bianca's silhouette in the dark. She audibly grunted and continued tampering with the lock on Grimsley's door,

"...Is it true that Helma was never a member of team plasma?" Bianca asked,

"...yes it's true," Lucia answered, "did she tell you?"

"No,"

"...she's comfortable with us...done."

The characteristic sound of the unlocking of a door was heard, and the sound of the metals clashing rumbled right on Bianca's ear. She touched Lucia's shoulder,

"you should go," Bianca said

"are you sure? If the houndooms aren't in there then Grimsley is, no other alternative,"

"I'm sure, thank you,"

"alright." Lucia moved away from the door and hugged Bianca, "it was really nice knowing you friend," she cruelly whispered,

"Come on!"

Lucia laughed mischievously and hugged Bianca once more, sincerely, although only for a fraction of a second, then left her in the dark. Bianca remembered the screeching noise the door made so she tried to open it as slowly as she could, and only enough for her body to pass through. It took some time, but she managed to open it without any noticeable sound, then went inside.

She reached for the faintly bright dot on the wall and turned on the light, just then she heard a rather guttural snore, of the kind only people in the deepest sleep are able to make, and then she heard another even louder one. Bianca froze on the spot and covered her mouth with her hands even though she was not saying anything, her eyes inspected the room as she slowly moved her head from left to right, and only when she lowered her sight she found Grimsley thoroughly dozed off on the ground right next to the bookcase, resting his head on his hands and with a small, filthy gray pillow under them.

It was too late to back down; Bianca knew she had to continue. She went over to the table with the map on top and tried to decipher the meaning behind all the red and black dots and lines on it. Seeing as she didn't have any clue about what that scramble could mean, she focused on finding a more objective sign which would reveal his schemes in a more conclusive way, or at least showcased the specific nomenclature of the dots and lines. Bianca decided to start her search with the drawers on the nearby desk, she moved surreptitiously to open the first one. On the first of the three drawers she found candy, a ton of it, some of it open, but all of it only of the most expensive kind, plus a note that read "None of this is for you." She resisted the soul crushing temptation of taking one and closed the drawer with a silent lament. Then Bianca opened the second drawer and found a bunch of comic books inside; the top one showcased a baroque looking gallade fighting a black mewtwo with horns on the cover, and also a note that read "If you value your own well being it would be wise of you to stop looking around now, p. s. I really, REALLY hope that you didn't take any of the candy."

Grimsley snored again and Bianca gasped audibly, she slowly closed the drawer and then pondered whether to open the last drawer or not, while a palpable rush of anxiety appeared inside her chest. She completely filled her lungs with air, took a beat, and then opened the last drawer, only to find the image of an incomprehensible, demonic monster looking right at her. She closed her throat and caught the scream inside before it could come out, then took the single page containing the malign drawing and placed it face down on top of the desk. In the process, she uncovered something immensely more pleasant to the eye under said page: the portrait of a woman. It was covered with protective glass over it and had a black, simple frame around it.

The portrait showed her heart shaped face, her neck, and only her torso up to just below her shoulders. She had big and long green eyes full of life, equally lively eyebrows that told she was happy, and even though it was only a picture her gaze was powerful, and it was possible to discern many things about her from her eyes. She was lively and adventurous, she yearned for deep connections and she enjoyed teasing her loved ones. All of this Bianca could deduce only from her eyes, then she moved on from them and examined the rest of her. She had a faint beauty mark on her left cheek below her eye, blonde hair parted on the middle, tied into a bun or a ponytail behind her, but loose enough to fully cover her ears. She had a small, pointy nose and a small mouth with red lips forming a faint smile, showing a little bit of her white teeth. She was wearing a light purple shirt, and a silver half moon pendant hanged from her neck.

Somehow the portrait of the beautiful woman seemed familiar to Bianca; there was something in her eyes that made her think she had seen her before. She lifted the portrait and below it she found yet another picture of the same woman, this one without a frame. On the second picture she was sitting on a large rock at the edge of a rocky road, with the blue sky behind her. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a white shirt, and jeans and boots. She had her hair tied down on a visible braided ponytail, which in turn revealed her double pierced ears, and she had a wide and joyful smile on her face.

Bianca remembered that Grimsley was in the room with her, she turned around and saw him with a single drop of drool coming out of his mouth. Then she looked at the painting of Shauntal on the wall which caught her attention. Bianca felt how it somehow called to her, so she went to take a closer look at it carrying the first portrait with her. It was not Shauntal, or the book she had on her lap, or the scenery below her but there was something weird on that picture, and she knew she was looking at the peculiarity but just hadn't pinpointed it yet. She inspected the picture from left to right, from corner to corner, and her eyes stopped dead set on the moon right above Shauntal's head. Only then she realized that the moon stood out from the rest of the painting, and when she noticed it the moon became more beautiful than anything else. And then she saw it. A pair of eyes, her eyes.

The same eyes as those of the woman in the portrait, obviously not green but of the same color as the moon, right at the center of it, looking right at her. It was impossible that was a coincidence. Bianca held the portrait in front of Shauntal's face in the painting, right below the moon, to appreciate the uncanny resemblance better, and then she looked away from it. After she noticed it, it became harder for Bianca to hold her stare at the painting.

Then, she felt yet another pair of eyes looking at her, and felt shivers down her spine. She turned back only moving her head like a ventriloquist's dummy, still holding the picture in front of the painting, and found Grimsley wide awake standing behind her with a perceived, controlled rage oozing from him, even though he looked completely serious. Bianca looked into his eyes and felt the same fear as when she looked at the drawing of the demonic monster, Grimsley looked the same as always and at the same time he looked like never before, as if he had let out the inner darkness that he always carried with him.

"I am not going to kill you," Grimsley said with a monotonous tone, "but I could do it, and I want to,"

"...I understand," Bianca boldly replied, "I have a good explanation for this,"

"I couldn't care less,"

"please let me explain, I think I get what you are trying to do and...!"

Grimsley rushed toward Bianca and swiftly took the portrait from her, while she closed her eyes and tried unsuccessfully to hold onto it. Grimsley grabbed it and held it away from Bianca at the same time he gave her a stare only someone who had experimented the true loss of hope could make. But Bianca wasn't scared, which was probably Grimsley's goal, she was resolute. Instead of cowering, she went over to the desk and grabbed the second picture, while Grimsley's rage increased as he stayed put, he couldn't believe her insolence.

"Just give me a chance to explain," Bianca said. Then she looked at the back of the picture, it had a sentence written on it which read "Only you know who you are and what you can do, never forget, if no one else knows you at least you do, and that's the only thing that matters."

Grimsley's face changed and he let out a deep sigh, however, it was not one of relief or lament, but rather of defeat, of the most sorrowful kind of defeat,

"who is she?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I care, I care Grimsley, why is it so hard for you to tell me what you are doing here? You are not preparing for war, that is certain,"

"I told you that when we first met,"

"huh...oh yeah, well," Bianca's eyes opened wide, it seemed like Grimsley had been honest, at least partially, with her, "I just found out that some of the people here were never part of team plasma,"

"so?"

"So I remember what you said about building a place for evil people and how that was a complete lie you said just to bother me, how it doesn't make any sense, and then there's this map and so..."

"the map? It's for a casino, I love casinos, you either win or you lose, there's nothing in between. I was going to focus on that now that I had people to do it, but they didn't care, not really, they didn't say anything about it but I could tell. They would've done everything I told them to, those gullible idiots. So I just stopped, to give them some time to realize that they have minds of their own, I don't think I've ever seen them more at peace with themselves, I guess when you're inside a cave nobody can make you feel like you're not wanted."

Bianca's eyes lightened up, a distinctive spark appeared on them at the same time she smiled wide,

"oh my goodness oh my goodness! You want to give the remnants a second chance just like she did with you,"

"...I think it's time for you to leave,"

"no way! Behind that dark and gritty exterior lies a warm and caring center, I knew it, I honestly did,"

"are you serious?" Grimsley's aura of rage disappeared, Bianca's words had led him to complete despair. He continued, "You know, it's fine that you have uncovered one of my deepest, darkest secrets, when you compare it to what sickening, massively perverted, hackneyed cliche storm of a sentence which you have just uttered,"

"come on, it is a cliché for a reason, you aren't made of rocks, it doesn't matter how much you'd like to be, abandon that fake exterior and give in to your most sentimental self, I can tell you have one, show me the truth, or be a rough coward surrounded by a pathetic wall of ignorance and fear,"

"do you value your life? I am THE pathetic wall of ignorance and fear, you need to stop." Grimsley rubbed his forehead in frustration,

"Oh my goodness!" Bianca exclaimed once more.

"You know what, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, I'll just send everybody home and rent a frat or something for the ones that don't have anywhere to go, whatever,"

"no way, you can't do that, you have to stay here with them, you are only saying that because I uncovered your secret but please, you, must, stay here and let them stay here with you,"

"you are breaking the rules, no one can be in here but me,"

"no and shut up, come on! It's over, you are acting like a child and you are way too old...period. You totally want to help them because of how she helped you, oh my goodness! Where is she?"

"She's dead."

Bianca's face went from pure joy to basically almost crying in less than a second,

"if that is a joke it is in really poor taste and I do not appreciate it",

"it's not, it all happened before I joined the elite 4, a long, long time ago, so you don't even need to say you are sorry,"

"I'm sorry,"

"I told you not to,"

"I know...at least this means that there's no real reason for people to try and stop you, don't worry I'll go and tell everyone,"

"tell them whatever you want, people are self absorbed bastards, deep down they are glad that there's a group of people lurking in the shadows that they can come and knock down whenever they please,"

"what?"

"All these people I have down here, the people above are happy they exist because they are the losers, the misfits, the outcasts, even if they had not joined team plasma, even if they had gotten a mundane job or became mediocre pokemon trainers, things wouldn't change, the people above would still boast that they are better than this group of talentless mooks, now, don't get me wrong, I personally stopped and detained some of these mooks when they were trying to take control of Unova; they chose the wrong side and are guilty, they deserve a comeuppance. But, most of them joined team plasma because there was nothing else to do, nowhere to go, and now there's truly nothing for them, not anymore...it's quite a liberating position to be in actually, at least it was for me years ago, and...look...at...me...now. It's basically the same situation for the ones who were never in team plasma, they heard about a group of people living in a cave away from the regular folks and crawled in to join us, it's all the same, _losers_ , the people above need losers to know who the winners are, in conclusion, no one will listen to you, period,"

"yes they will, they have to, because it's the truth."

Bianca put the picture back in the drawer and then turned to face Grimsley and bowed to him. Then she stormed out of the room.


	12. Meltdown

Popito stuck his index finger in his mouth and licked it profusely, then he took it out and raised it to test the direction of the wind. He felt nothing, and it was of no use whatsoever because he was in a cave, but he did it every time before starting his favorite activity of throwing rocks at a trash can. The trash can, which had been placed a few feet away from him, had Ghetsis' face painted on its surface. There weren't any trainers around, and it was quiet enough for the rocks to make the perfect reverberations at the contact with the metal, it was the perfect time to get a rock throwing session going. Popito reached into his pocket and took out a rock, he kissed it, leaving rather disgusting traces of gravel on his lips, and then threw it with energy at Ghetsis.

Suddenly Helma appeared, she walked in front of the trash can at the same time the rock traveled toward it with violent intent, and hit her hard on the temple. She grabbed her head with both of her hands and crouched down while screaming, out of anger rather than pain, although it was obvious that the pain was fueling her anger. Without hesitation, Helma grabbed the same rock that hurt her moments ago and threw it back at Popito with scary precision. He covered his face with his arm, which turned out to be a wise move since the rock hit him hard on his forearm.

Popito uncovered his face and saw Helma running at him, she tackled him to the ground, grabbed him by the collar, then raised her fist in the air,

"dear lord! Please don't hit me, if you let me go I'll let you kiss me!" He shouted, alerting the ears of Jonny who was nearby. He deduced the situation and went over to help the rock throwing rascal, arriving at the right time to see Helma raised her arm, preparing to strike. Jonny walked over to them with his hands in his pockets, and said nothing,

"help me!" Popito shouted at Jonny whilst trying to knock Helma off him. He was too weak to overpower her however, and stayed under her,

"why are you fighting?" Jonny asked in the most monotonous way possible,

"he threw a rock at me," Helma said as she finally let Popito stand up,

"again?" Jonny asked, "how many times has it happened?"

"Just twice," Popito answered as he dusted off his vest, "hey, I've been throwing rocks here since before you got here so excuse me for not minding your wandering heads,"

"did you use to get in fights like these?" Jonny asked once more,

"we actually met when we joined the remnants," Helma said,

"that can't be true," Jonny said,

"it is," Popito answered, "most of the time we fellow cave dwellers do not meet each other, the ruins are massive, now add to that the old part of the tunnels and victory road and you have a giant underground city,"

"indeed," a calm voice resonated around the cave, "perfect for starting a criminal organization, wouldn't you think?"

The three stood on their spot, silently looking around for the source of the serene yet somehow threatening voice; there was something in the soothing tone and the uncanny reach it had around the cave that made it appalling. They could tell someone was walking toward them, the sound of the steps became clearer and louder as it went on. Then, out of the shadows, the silhouette of a woman became visible. She stepped out of the darkness, letting the faint light on the place reveal her, it was Sabrina. She was wearing her classic red top and white pants combo. plus two black bracelets with glowing blue light coming out of them, one on each hand.

"who is she?" Popito asked as he pointed at her without a care, prompting Helma to look at him like an alien before replying to his stupid question,

"you are kidding right? That's Sabrina, the Saffron City gym leader from Kanto who specializes in psychic types, what do you think she's doing here though? Do you think she'd give me her autograph if I ask her?"

"She's probably confused," Jonny said, "maybe all that hanging around psychic pokemon finally took its toll on her brain, I'll ask her."

Jonny stepped in front of Popito and Helma and put his hands around his mouth, "there aren't any criminal organizations here miss, I promise...hey, nice bracelets, do they make them for men?"

"Jonny! Why did you asked her that?" Helma panicked,

"calm down, I'm taking her temperature."

Sabrina let out a small chuckle, there was a distinctive radiance in her unusually sun colored eyes,

"wanna see what I can do with them?" she said.

An alakazam came out of the shadows behind her, with the same glow on its eyes as her. Its long golden whiskers moved majestically until the pokemon stopped and stood right next to Sabrina. The guys panicked and took a step back, Jonny and Popito realized the severity of the situation, which Helma had intuited well before them. Alakazam shouted its name and closed its eyes, then a pink glow appeared all around its body. Suddenly the pokemon started floating, it put the two spoons it was carrying together and visibly prepared an attack. Alakazam shouted again and released a pink aura, however, instead of striking Jonny and company it directed the attack at Sabrina herself. She smiled and raised her fist completely calm; the pink beam hit her and her bracelet absorbed it on its entirety. Jonny put his hands around his mouth again, although this time he was scared,

"excuse me, I don't know what you want with us, but I can assure you we don't want any problem...!"

Sabrina extended her open hand at him, pushing the air. Then she quickly pulled it toward her and made her hand into a fist, as if she were grabbing Jonny and pulling him toward her. Suddenly Jonny started floating, and he flew rather violently to Sabrina until he was right in front of her, still floating,

"I don't care what you say at this moment," Sabrina moved Jonny's face right next to hers, he was scared to death, "because I know what you will do later, you and all your friends, and Grimsley, will bring nothing but problems and misery to the good people of Unova. If you continue with whatever it is that you are doing I will be forced to stop you, and I will stop you, be sure of that. However, I'll give you one chance, and only one chance, so get this through that head of yours, give up NOW and disappear, or face the consequences, my consequences."

She opened her hand and pushed it forward again, causing Jonny to fly out all the way until he hit Helma and Popito and the three of them fell on the ground,

"tell that to your boss," Sabrina continued, "I'll be back soon and if you are still here I'll make sure you beg for my mercy. so accept my mercy now."

Sabrina and Alakazam went back into the darkness and disappeared, while Jonny and company wasted no time to get up and run away scared, even though Sabrina was already gone. They stumbled their way around the cave trying to find a safe place to hide. Reaching a corner, Jonny waved his hand on the air decisively, telling Popito and Helma to follow him, and he led them as a group to the girls' bedroom, hidden behind a couple of fake boulders which they took no time to move away. Inside the room, amongst the many single beds covered with white and light blue sheets, they found Lucia sitting on one of the beds, preparing cheese balls whilst and eating some of them.

The guys rushed to her and frantically started explaining what had just happened to them as best as they could under their current anxious state. Helma told her about how Sabrina manifested herself in front of their eyes and showed them the extent of her and her pokemon's power; Jonny told her about how she lifted him up in the air and took him right up to her beautiful yet scary face to threaten him as well as the remnants and Grimsley; and Popito was too scared to formulate proper sentences so he just rambled on about how it was the end of him.

Lucia put the cheese balls down and clasped her hands seemingly unamused, but listened attentively to their every word. She waited until they calmed down a little and stopped talking, then she nodded and promptly walked out of the room. Jonny went after her,

"where are you going?" He asked,

"to give myself up," Lucia answered. Helma heard her and took a still distraught Popito with her to make sure she understood what Lucia said,

"to who?" Jonny asked again,

"to whomever it is that I need to give myself up,"

"why?!" Helma cried,

"I'm not going to go through another team plasma situation again, I'm done," Lucia said, and continued walking away,

"wait!" Helma caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm, "you can't do that, I won't let you,"

"let go of me," Lucia violently moved her arm away from Helma with noticeable anger. Then she took a deep breath and went back to her stoic demeanor, "you don't understand, I've done some stuff, I've always known there was a chance that they'd come for me, at any moment, stopping and regretting and making better choices isn't enough,"

"but you said so yourself," Helma continued, "you are out, you went straight and what not, all you want to do is live your life away from crime, on a cave, what's wrong with that?"

"I said so myself," Lucia turned her back on them, "that is not enough for them,"

"what did you do?" Popito asked her once he calmed down,

"we stole..." Jonny answered for Lucia, "...we mainly stole, convinced and deceived people to give us their stuff and pokemon...but then we gave them back...I mean when they cornered us and beat us but we gave it all back, all of them, I made sure of that myself, and now we live here away from them, we are not bothering them so you don't have to leave, let's go tell Bianca maybe she can help us,"

"no, this is it for me I'm leaving," Lucia said, then continued walking away without facing them,

"no you won't!" Helma walked up to her and put her arm around her neck from behind, then Jonny and Popito joined in to contain Lucia as she struggled with them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Colress arrived back at the place that served as his home, the enormous, solar powered aircraft known as the plasma frigate, located at the p2 laboratory near Nuvema town. It had been a while since he was last there and he hadn't gotten any sleep since, so he was rather glad to be there again. He was mere feet away from the large ship when he heard a sudden cry coming from the bushes near him, it was obvious that it came from a pokemon, a small one at that. Colress went over to check it out and was able to identify the tip of what seemed to be a vanillite; the white, curly top of its head protruded from the bush. He thought twice before kneeling down to inspect further and raised an eyebrow; he wasn't buying it.

Right then Colress felt a sudden cold sting on his back, it quickly expanded through the entirety of his back all the way to his chest. His muscles contracted involuntarily as soon the cold reached them, leaving them in constant tension and rendering them immobile. It was as if he were lifting something very heavy but he couldn't move at all, and it was as cold as it was painful, very.

"I knew you wouldn't fall for that, you are a smart one, perhaps you are too smart for your own good," Colress heard, he knew exactly who it was, "it was hard to get here undetected, utterly typical of you to be this careful, I guess you just weren't careful enough."

Zinzolin stepped in front of him and gave him a mischievous smile. Colress body did not respond him, he could only give Zinzolin a stare full of hate and anger,

"I'm sure you have questions," Zinzolin continued. He took a look at the plastic gun he had on his hand and then at Colress, "you've crafted a fine item by the way," he then added, "and I'm sure you have more, I want you to know that I will use all of them to teach the people of Unova where they belong, under the soil of my shoe, I hope that you are in a comfortable position because you will watch all of this...by the way, that vanillite is already dead so you don't have to worry about it."


	13. Prisoners

Bianca pushed the door violently with her shoulder and went inside the lab. She looked incredibly distressed, her forehead was covered in sweat. Her entrance made a loud noise that resounded all over the laboratory and made everyone turn to her in shock.

"Where's Cheren!?" She shouted, "I went to Aspertia city but they told me he was here!"

Bianca focused her eyes on every startled face on the lab searching for Cheren, and found him just as he had gotten right in front of her. He was just as exasperated as her. He grabbed her tight by the shoulders,

"Bianca! I shouldn't have sent you that letter telling you to go there, I'm so sorry!" Cheren said almost screaming,

"No! It's okay, I have something very important to tell you, the remnants, they..."

"Don't worry," Cheren interrupted her, "Sabrina will take care of it,"

"what do you mean?" Bianca asked genuinely confused, "the gym leader?"

"Yes, she'll stop them and disband them again, this time for good,"

"no! You don't understand, the remnants don't want another team plasma, Grimsley's actually a nice guy, well, at least he has good intentions this time, very good intentions,"

"what are you talking about?! I was worried this would happen, he must have brainwashed you in a ploy to convince us that he's not plotting the destruction of Unova." Cheren let go of Bianca, pushing her back a bit, "oh no! I didn't mean to do that Bianca," he cried out nervously.

He approached her and tried to grab her by the shoulders again, gentler this time, but Bianca put her elbow forward and backed away from him. Cheren's comments had hurt her deeply, she realized the remnants weren't the only ones who were looked down upon. She clenched her teeth and turned away from him, hoping to find someone else she could talk to. She found professor Juniper already approaching her with a serious and concerned expression on her face,

"you have to believe me professor, we should accept the remnants and let them stay there, they really have changed," Bianca pleaded to her with her arms forward, seemingly trying to grab the air,

"of course Bianca, we'll listen to everything you have to say, don't worry." The professor put her hand on Bianca's shoulder and saw relief appear on her face,

"really?"

"Yes, but first there's something we need to do," the professor said.

Bianca looked at her in the eyes but the professor looked away. She felt betrayed. She moved away from both of them. The professor backed away too, she turned to her left and looked at someone, it was Bianca's dad. He was sitting next to a desk with his arm resting on top of it, looking right at his daughter. He wasn't exactly angry, more than that it seemed like he was tired of being angry.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Bianca asked,

"I have a better question, what are you...doing?"

Bianca didn't answer him. She didn't have to look around the room to know that everyone was looking at her, and that they all thought she was crazy.

"We want to have a chat with you Bianca, there's a car outside waiting for us," the professor spoke with her softest, least threatening voice possible, but Bianca sensed danger; she knew they'd never hurt her, but they didn't have good intentions either.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"You arrived at the perfect time," Cheren said, making Bianca even more afraid and confused. She closed her eyes and made her hands into fists, then she ran outside. There she found that her troubles were bigger than she could've ever imagined. A crowd of people had manifested outside the lab, all of them trainers around her age, wearing showy clothes and cool hats, sporting confident smiles on their faces. Some of them had pokeballs on their hands, some of them were petting their starter pokemon, but all of them looked like they were ready for battle.

"No..." Bianca whispered to herself.

And behind all of them, a very tall man leaned on a car with his arms crossed, he was wearing a black suit, red tie, and a trench coat. He opened the backseat door for her as soon as he saw her. Bianca knelt down on the ground, covered her face with her hands, and started weeping.

* * *

Popito's loose tongue made sure that the news of Sabrina's intrusion into the cave spread like fire around the remnants, and Grimsley was one of the first people to learn about it. Everyone gathered in the lounge as soon as they saw Grimsley get in to have his drink, in a sort of unofficial meeting to discuss their future. And he knew this well.

"Where's Bianca?" Jonny asked in front of everybody. He only meant for Lucia and Helma to listen but everyone in the room heard him, even Grimsley, who was sitting on his chair with his back turned to them. He stood up without finishing his drink and went up on top of the largest table, his table, and faced his crowd.

"Who cares where Bianca is, she's not part of us, she never was," Grimsley said with a calm, sorrowful voice, but loud enough to be heard by everyone,

"that's not true, she chose to stay here like me, it is obvious that she likes us," Helma shouted at Grimsley waving her fist on the air, "she works with professor Juniper AND she understands us so if we ask her maybe she can help."

"Yes, Bianca does understand what we are doing here, maybe she cares for us, maybe she will even try to help us but it's useless, people like her mean well they really do," Grimsley looked at the ground with visible sadness in his eyes, but immediately regained his composure, "however, she will not be able to convince anyone, and they'll come after us no matter what."

Popito raised his hand at the same time he sipped on a glass of juice. Grimsley and everyone else looked at him, and waited for him to speak.

"What if we hide from them?" Popito finally asked,

"we are already hiding," Grimsley replied, "and they've found us, if we hide again they'll look for us again,"

"alright, but what if we leave?" Popito insisted,

"it'll be the same,"

"fine then, what if we hide underwater or somewhere Sabrina won't find us?"

"That's impossible," Jonny answered him,

"I mean they have to stop at some point, don't they?" Popito asked again,

"have they ever stopped?" Grimsley asked him back, "think about it, they don't actually care about saving the region or maintaining peace, all they want is for there to be someone evil to beat, a punching bag they can kick around to get stronger, they are glad that we exist because it gives them a chance to be heroes,"

"wow, that's straight up lame," Helma stoically added,

"that's exactly right Helma, they are lame, they are all so far up their own asses that they genuinely cannot acknowledge that each and every being around them is just as much of a person as they are, everything revolves around them and they take pleasure knowing that they are better, so they take pleasure in knocking you down, and keeping you down."

Grimsley stopped talking and took a look around the silent room, every face was serious and focused, they were all listening to his every word. He got down from the table continued talking to them at their level,

"so if they won't stop coming after us, looking for a fight, let's give it to them, not for them but for us, because that will be your true redemption, fighting for yourselves."

Jonny started clapping and cheering wholeheartedly and then everyone followed suit, except for Lucia.


	14. Assimilation

One by one, the now determined remnants got out of the lounge. Helma and Lucia were the only ones left inside. For the rest of the afternoon Helma did not stop bothering her friend, she tried many times to make eye contact with her but Lucia wouldn't let her. It all started when she saw how Lucia didn't clap after Grimsley's speech, she didn't even seem happy about it. But Helma's insistence would have to stop soon, as Lucia would ultimately run out of patience. Most of the time she was more than willing to endure Helma's stubbornness, they were very close friends and Lucia knew they only had each other, but this time Helma was being very rigid, and annoying.

"Please leave me alone," Lucia whispered to Helma without looking at her,

"Look at me stupid, don't you want to defend your home?" Helma angrily berated her as she tried to make eye contact once more,

"it's a cave, that has nothing to do with it,"

"really? Because everyone else is going to fight, Jonny's fighting, I'm sure he'll convince you...where is he?"

"He's trying to sell stuff to get money for supplies...for the time of war that he says is coming,"

"see, he knows he must defend his people and fight for what is actually right,"

"yeah, and he knows and understands that I don't want to, you know, it would've been really easy for me to tell you that he and I have been through some stuff together, and you have no idea what that's like so you could never understand...I guess I did say it just now, but you are my friend, out of all the people I thought you'd listen to me,"

"but we are fighting for ourselves now, it is the right thing to do,"

"shut up."

Jonny entered the lounge without being seen or heard, startling both Helma and Lucia once they noticed him. It was highly unusual of him not to shout or make a noise after barging in, and there was something off with him in general. Helma noticed the change in his demeanor and his appearance immediately, he was wearing a bizarre set of red headphones, very big and seemingly heavy, which encompassed the entirety of his ears, and connected to an equally bizarre pair of sunglasses of the same color, which covered his eyes, eyebrows, and part of his nose. The whole setup made it seem like Jonny was wearing a mask. He walked differently too, without moving his upper body at all. It was as if only his legs were alive.

"I've found you Lucia, come here I've got something for you," Jonny said as he approached her carrying another set of headphones on his hand, just like the ones he was wearing.

He grabbed Lucia by the arm and tried to put them on her without waiting for a response but she didn't let him,

"I don't want them,"

"why not? Just try them," Jonny pressed her,

"they look ugly and uncomfortable, put them away,"

"she said no!" Helma shouted. She tried to take the headphones off Jonny's hands but he immediately elbowed her on the jaw, hard. Helma moved away in shock and grabbed her cheek, which was stinging with a pungent and concentrated pain. She looked at Jonny in horror as he forcefully put the headphones on Lucia against her will. It's not like they hadn't traded a few blows once or twice before, but he had never and he would never hurt her, not like that.

"Who is she?" Jonny asked with a monotonous voice,

"doesn't matter, but we will have to get another set," Lucia said once she adjusted her headphones, moving just as emotionless as Jonny,

"hey guess-ss, what?" Jonny said as he turned to Helma, although she didn't know if he was actually looking at her, "Team Plasma's back, it is the opportunity of a lifetime."

Jonny moved his hands toward her and creepily waved his fingers. Lucia followed suit and they approached an increasingly scared Helma, who immediately ran away. She got out of the lounge and turned behind her to see her friends chasing after her. She ran faster, heading towards victory road. There she'd have the advantage, as well as multiple exits she could use; they wouldn't be able to catch her in her home turf.

After getting out of the ruins, she found another one of the remnants crouched down on the middle of a wooden bridge on victory road. As soon as she saw him she ran over to the bridge, hoping to even the numbers. She shouted at him once she was close enough. The bald remnant stood up and faced her, revealing the same headphones and glasses on his head. It was Quincey.

"I need to get another set," he said like a robot.

Jonny and Lucia were right behind her, she was trapped between them and Quincey on the bridge. Helma knew what she had to do and lamented herself for it. Right on the middle of the bridge, with her stalkers eager to get her from both sides, Helma grabbed the rope railing with both of her hands and jumped to the ground floor below her, falling feet first on the hard ground. She felt the extent of the contact mainly on her right hip; the pain settled there. She looked up and saw her three sudden tormentors standing right above her, just looking at her like mindless robots. They didn't move or speak, they just stared at her from above. Helma knew she had gained a few crucial seconds to escape, and she limped away to a safe spot only she knew, where they'd never find her.

The most inconspicuous corner on the underground, no trainer or pokemon ever bothered to look there, mainly because there was nothing to look for. There, neither the light from outside nor the one from the torches would uncover Helma, no one could see her but she could see everyone; her sight adjusted to the almost pitch black darkness. The two walls that made the corner behind her touched her shoulders, she sat down and hugged her knees with true terror in her eyes.

Suddenly Helma felt yet another presence, and was able to distinguish a somehow darker shadow moving around the darkness. She then saw a face. He, whoever it was, was wearing some type of face mask, it looked like the bars of a prison cell over his mouth, and his forehead was soaking wet.

It was the worst moment Popito could've chosen to walk through carrying his trash can with Ghetsis face painted on it. Helma contained the urge to shout at him to run away, as it wouldn't be of any help and they, whomever they were, would get her too. The mysterious figure came out of the shadows and approached Popito, it was definitely a man, an old man, wearing a pitch black hooded robe. He had visible gray-greenish long hair, his eyes were barely open and he seemed to be struggling with the heat his robe brought him.

"Hello, are you a fellow dweller? A few of us just started socializing," Popito naively said to the man,

"do you want to try this headphones on little boy?" His voice sounded deep and raspy, almost metallic, and it seemed like it was difficult for him to speak,

"sure," Popito said as he dropped his trash can on the ground. It clashed with the rocks on the ground and moved until Ghetsis face was showing on top, luckily the man failed to notice it. Popito wasted no time to grab the headgear from the man's hand and quickly put it on,

"listen to me," the man said,

"I'm listening," Popito spoke with the same dull tone Jonny and company used,

"great, the mind control is working flawlessly,"

"yes,"

"well wasn't that easy?" The man boasted, "you were the easiest out of all of them by far, by far, see, this is what you're good for, you're not strong, you're not clever, but you can listen, I tell you, some people were born only to do others' bidding, and when they fail to realize that, well, let's just say things do not go well for them, do they? Come on, I need to be close to the others until I can figure out a way to make the mind control more powerful,"

"we must move closer," Popito said scantily.

The two of them walked away, leaving Helma alone in the darkness once more. She waited until she felt safe enough; she then tried to stand up, but the pain on her hip did not let her. She couldn't help but let out a small cry, thankfully for her no one heard it. Helma had to resort to support her hand on the wall to move, as far away from there as she could.

No pokemon or people appeared on her way as Helma struggled to get back to the ruins. She reached the fake wall that led to Grimsley's room and promptly knocked it down with her forehead, then started banging on his door hard and loud. If he was in there she'd be safe, stealth and subtlety be damned. She pushed her way in through the door as soon as she heard the lock being open, and found Grimsley stunned by her demeanor; his visible drowsiness instantly disappeared. She reached for his collar, which was one head above her, and dragged him to her level; he was more confused than anything, he had seen Helma angry on multiple occasions but this time it seemed like she had lost it.

Then Grimsley heard what she had to say and became enraged. He pushed Helma aside and pulled the door violently, then stormed outside. Helma followed him and found six pokemon already waiting for him in a circle on the hallway: a houndoom, a drapion, liepard, honchkrow, bisharp, and crawdaunt, all howling and growling loud and vibrant. Moments later more pokemon manifested on the scene from left and right, from absol and tyrannitar to scrafty and sableye.

"Find the remnants first," Grimsley shouted, and the pokemon divided into two groups. One ran to the left and the other one to the right. Helma followed Grimsley who himself ran behind his three houndooms to the right.

Mayhem ensued, the dark pokemon ignored intruding trainers and pokemon and knocked down the more persistent ones to continue with their task. But it seemed like they were too late, they found no traces of the remnants anywhere. Grimsley thought about searching for them on the outside, using the help of all the dark pokemon on his favor, the remnants couldn't be very far and he would never let whoever was behind the attack escape. Just then he saw the silhouette of a robbed man at the end of the hallway, and his shadow disappeared as soon as Grimsley saw him. Grimsley bolted to encounter him with his pokemon, with Helma behind him moving as fast as she could. After reaching a corner she caught a glimpse of the man they were chasing, it could've been him.

The man became closer the more they chased after him, it was obvious he wasn't fast enough to lose them. Grimsley saw an opportunity, he moved his index finger forward and one of his houndooms sprinted like a bullet towards the man and took him down. Grimsley ran over to him and turned him face up,

"Rood?!" Grimsley sounded betrayed, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to warn you, whatever it is that you are doing here, Zinzolin wants a piece, if not all of it! I just wanted to warn you!" The man pleaded,

"you couldn't have done that earlier? I wasted crucial time chasing you." Grimsley showed his teeth, there was a crimson glow on his eyes. He closed his mouth and let out a guttural grunt filled with anger,

"I'm sorry! I just thought you should know, he's going to try and take the remnants away from you any way he can, he wants to reform team plasma and try ghetsis plan agai…" Grimsley did not let him finish, he put his foot on Rood's cheek and started pressing it against the ground. Rood screamed ear piercingly loud, his cries were in tune with the pain he was feeling, Grimsley wasn't holding back.

"Yeah? Nice job ruining everything moron, they are probably gone and it's all because of your stupidity," Grimsley called him out as he moved his foot, scraping Rood's face on two surfaces. It was a rough scene, Helma thought of talking Grimsley down but resolved it'd be noneffective. She thought of pushing him away from Rood but realized that she was too scared of him to try.

"we should go find the remnants," she finally said,

"Zinzolin isn't that stupid, he won't be lingering around anymore regardless of if he got all of them or not," Grimsley said before lifting his feet off Rood. There was blood,

"don't let me see your stupid face ever again," Grimsley said as Rood stood up holding his bloodied cheeks with his hands, then he ran away. The two people left walked around the entirety of the underground looking for their friends, knowing they wouldn't find them.


	15. Judgement

Juniper hung up the phone. Everyone in the laboratory, including Cheren and Sabrina, looked at her expectant,

"Sabrina was right, team plasma is at it again," she said firmly, "they boarded the plasma frigate and crashed it near the giant chasm, if the report is correct they've taken over the entrance to the cave hoping to find Kyurem,"

"everyone knows Kyurem isn't there anymore, what are they getting at?" One of the many trainers in the room asked,

"beats me," Juniper replied, "but Sabrina has been given green light to go and stop them, the police will escort you there whenever you are ready...any idea where Colress is?"

"No one has seen him for a while, maybe he joined team plasma again, he's a criminal after all," Cheren said.

"That's extremely unlikely," Sabrina replied, "I'll investigate about his whereabouts when this is over, but for now we must focus...any trainer who can fly to Humilau city, do it, I'll wait for you on the outskirts of the city. As for the rest of you who can't fly, Marlon the gym leader has offered to come here and take you there himself, it's his job since he's the closest to the giant chasm anyway, be ready, we do this now."

Sabrina got out of the laboratory full of trainers to find even more of them readily waiting outside. She repeated her instructions, then she got into a police car which was waiting there just for her. She sat in the passenger seat, closed the door, and the car drove off. The driver was a well built policeman with an abundant and well groomed mustache covering his mouth.

A sense of dread started to surround Sabrina. She knew the opposition didn't have any chance of defeating her and the trainers; she was absolutely sure of her side's victory. And yet, she couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was wrong, a tragedy seemed unavoidable.

"Good day ma'am, I'm officer Mark Ward," the policeman said, "I'm here to make sure everything is done by the book, but make no mistake, I'll do whatever's necessary to take those dirty mooks down once and for all, and I'll gladly get out of your way...I'd be lying if I said I won't enjoy watching the region's finest trainers kick those scum's asses. The fact that you are here and that I'll be seeing this from the first row is the icing on the cake, those idiots have it well deserved,"

"I hope you understand this doesn't bring me pleasure," Sabrina responded, "I don't know if they've done anything wrong yet, all I know is that something terrible will happen if we don't stop them,"

"of course, but just so we are clear we are not going there to negotiate, you are to stop them cold, they don't deserve one more chance,"

"I already gave them a chance, they didn't take it..."

A few hours later they reached the outskirts of Humilau city. There was a considerable amount of mist around, something they hadn't taken into account. Nevertheless the giant chasm became visible soon after; Mark stopped the car just as the head of the enormous cave stood out from over the fog on the horizon. He grabbed a black fur lined coat from the backseat and handed it to Sabrina, he told her that the snow in the giant chasm had left but the cold had stayed.

Sabrina got out of the car wearing the coat. She called out her Mr. Mime, and the joyful attitude with which the pokemon came out clashed jarringly with Sabrina's expression, it was no happy occasion. Another police car arrived and parked just behind them, two policemen came out of it, wearing the same coat as hers. Then a loud growl rumbled on the sky, and the six people on the ground raised their heads to identify its source. From the clouds came out a dragonite full of energy, with a blue haired trainer wearing protective goggles on top of the dragon, then, behind him came out many pokemon more, most of them dragonite and charizard, one besides the other as a group. They descended from the sky as if the sky itself had sent them there to uphold righteous justice, and met with Sabrina just as three blue jellicent joined them too from ground level, all of them carrying a bunch of trainers, as well as the gym leader Marlon, on their giant heads.

Sabrina nodded at the ensuing crowd. All of them, even the policemen, seemed more excited than worried, just like her jolly Mr. Mime.

"Alright listen up," Sabrina said decisively, "form a line, shoulder to shoulder, and stand behind this Mr. Mime," she pointed at her pokemon, "he will be our first line of defense, he in turn will walk behind me as I go over there to do some recon, we weren't counting on this fog after all."

The troops obeyed Sabrina diligently and she advanced first. She found the perfect spot to stand in formation just a few feet away from the cave entrance, with enough space to stay hidden from the enemy using the fog as cover. Sabrina left them in position and called out her sigilyph; the flying ornament came out in complete silence in accordance to Sabrina's mental guidance.

The colorful flying type flew furtively inside the cave while Sabrina closed her eyes, and saw in her mind what Sigilyph saw on the cave. A group of people wearing red, with their eyes and ears covered in a red glow. Some raticate, some amoonguss, some garbodor and seviper, but nowhere near equal the amount of people; they weren't match for her alone. The group of people inside the cave mechanically raised their heads at the same time, sensing movement. They seemed to be robots more than people. Sigilyph kept inspecting the cave, it didn't find Grimsley, but it discovered that the entrance was also the only exit, as most of the tunnels inside were sealed and there wasn't a lot of space.

Team plasma was basically trapped there. Either it was a trap, or they hadn't found what they were looking for and were desperate and on their last legs. Sabrina's experience led her to believe the latter supposition was true, and at that point she hated Grimsley the most. He had led that pathetic group of people to a senseless demise in a cave with with no exit, for no reason; it was obvious to her that he thought of them as useless pawns, less than cannon fodder. She called out her espeon.

On the inside of the cave, everything looked a darker, almost black shade of brown except for the entrance. Everything outside looked a grayish kind of white because of the fog. It was obvious there was someone outside, could be hundreds of people for all they knew. The afflicted remnants could feel the vibrations of the ground on the soil of their feet. Drops of sweat fell off some faces, others were fully crying, but none of them uttered a word or moved one inch, not because they didn't want to but because they couldn't. Then the vibrations became much more apparent, loud cries filled with rage were distinguishable and, suddenly, the face of an espeon appeared from the fog, right in the middle of the white. Then its full mesmerizing body appeared at the same time the psychic pokemon shot a beam of pink light from its forehead directly at a seviper, propelling it against the ceiling and fainting it instantly. Sabrina's face appeared after her pokemon, and behind her a rampant assault by a myriad of trainers and pokemon followed. It was obvious they weren't there for any other reason than to annihilate.

The remnant's pokemon hurried to move in front of their carers to create a line of defense, but neither the trainers nor Sabrina slowed down and instead charged at them with full force. Espeon directed another psychic at an Amoonguss, which fainted right after receiving the entirety of the attack, but its unconscious body stayed in its place. Sabrina ran to the unconscious giant mushroom and used it as support to jump through the remnant's pokemon. She arrived behind enemy lines, surrounded by the remnants. Her espeon also used the amoonguss to jump behind enemy lines and followed her into the pit of glowing heads.

Sabrina also took out her gallade, which came out instantly attacking a nearby raticat without having to listen to her trainer's orders, at least not verbally. Espeon fainted pokemon left and right by creating light beams from its forehead while gallade fainted pokemon at the same pace by physically hitting them with energy blades that came out of its arms, and a full on pitched battle ensued, with Sabrina and her pokemon as the main source of the attacks.

The remnant's pokemon fainted one of the imposing pokemon from the opposition at the same pace the opposition fainted three from the remnants, while the three policemen guarded the entrance with their arms crossed, enjoying the carnage. Mark Ward, although entertained, thought it'd be even better to join in. He smirked as he took out a pokeball before one of his colleagues lowered his arm, however. He'd have to conform with watching. Amoonguss and sevipers fell to flamethrowers and dragonbreaths, if the remnants could have expressed their feelings they'd have cried, while the freely expressive trainers smiled ecstatic, curb-stomping their way to victory.

A malicious looking crobat flew over gallade and methodically dropped a red mask right on its head, just like the one the remnants were wearing, and the crobat dropped another one on a nearby dragonite as well. The dragonite stopped listening to its trainer's orders and stopped moving altogether. Then the dragon released a vicious fire punch on a nearby excadrill from its own side, and followed that attack with an earthquake that affected every pokemon near it, including Marlon's already weakened jellicent, which fainted from its intensity. Sabrina caught wind of this and called her gallade back, causing the headgear to fall on the ground, however, this gave the remnants enough time to get the drop on her. Their exploited pokemon ganged up on espeon, a garbodor's gunk shot and raticate's hyper fang promptly fainted it. Sabrina called it back too.

Meanwhile, a trainer's skuntank cornered one of the many pokemonless remnants to a wall, and its cocky trainer appeared behind it clapping sarcastically. The thoroughly confused remnant started waving his hands up and down like an insane person, but at least he started acting more akin to a person,

"what's the matter with you, too scared?" the cocky trainer shouted, "skuntank, just use pursuit let's knock him out," he shouted again, but his pokemon hesitated. The skuntank cried its name and caused the spastic remnant to stop struggling and take off his mask,

"stunky? Is that you?" the remnant asked, "it's me, Jonny, you remember me right?"

"What are you doing? Skuntank come on!" the trainer replied anxiously, but skuntank did not move.

Jonny raised his arms, "you have to help me, someone is controlling me somehow, or at least they were, until I saw you,"

"what are you talking about? Stop messing with me it's a trap,"

"no it's not, look at your skuntank, he'll tell you, I was a member of team plasma and he used to be my pokemon. I released him when the team got dissolved, you can see he is not hitting me...is he treating you right?" Jonny moved to pet skuntank, "look at you, you are all grown up,"

"get away from my pokemon!" The trainer cried.

Skuntank turned and gave his trainer a look, "please don't make me hit him, he isn't evil," was the only thing it could mean. The trainer grew anxious, he took a few steps back and called his pokemon back. Jonny grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him,

"you have to believe me, something is going on! Tell the policemen someone is making us do this, most of us don't even have pokemon anymore!"

"I don't know," the trainer nervously replied, "I don't know!"

Jonny realized it was useless to try and reason with the trainer, he would never listen to him. Jonny ran away while the trainer stayed there like a statue. He tried to run outside, the fog had fairly dissipated and he could see some trees behind it. He sprinted as fast as he could, only to be stopped by Mark Ward at the entrance,

"you have to help me officer, someone is making us do this!" Jonny said,

"yeah right, shut your mouth and stay put, things will go better for you if you keep quiet," Mark replied at the same time he detained him.

Meanwhile, Sabrina called out her metagross and made it throw a bullet punch at the roaming crobat, taking it down immediately. She then jumped on top of her pokemon, knelt down on it and closed her eyes. Metagross ran rampant through the battlefield with Sabrina on top of it and, once they reached the turned dragonite, metagross released a powerful meteor mash right at the dragon's stomach, leaving it out of breath and opening its eyes wide. The corrupted dragonite answered with an outrage, it engulfed itself in a green glow and struck Metagross' face and body. Metagross endured the hit, as did Sabrina, and together they prepared to hit back at the unconscious aggressor. Without hesitating, metagross released another meteor mash right at the dragonite's jaw, and managed to take it down; dragonite dropped to the ground and the mask fell of its head. Sabrina opened her eyes and identified the dragonite's trainer. She proceeded to berate him for not calling his pokemon back, which would have resolved the issue. The trainer just stood there and received the scolding looking like he had just seen a ghost.

The corrupted dragonite was the remnants' last hope of victory. Most of their pokemon had fainted, and it was only because of the multitude of people that they couldn't identify how many of them were left. Suddenly, all of the remnants still wearing masks stopped moving altogether, raised their hands up, and moved to make a circle around the trainers and their pokemon, who stood expectant and ready to strike them down. Once they were all distributed in a circle, half of them picked up rocks from the ground, then grabbed the unarmed ones right next to them by the neck and raised their arms, while holding the improvised weapons up, obviously threatening to strike each other down with fatal results,

"stop and give up!" They all cried at the same time like robots, "you think you've won, you think you are more powerful than me but you don't know the extent of my power, either way you'll lose and I'll win,"

"it's over Grimsley!" Sabrina shouted, then let out a growl filled with rage, "this is a move only a true coward would make!"

"It's over for you, whatever happens I've already won," the remnants shouted in unison once more,

"you are delusional," Sabrina replied, this time with a calm voice.

Still on top of Metagross, Sabrina took off her coat at the same time her alakazam suddenly appeared from the mist, to everyone's bemusement. Alakazam shot a psychic directly at its trainer, which Sabrina received with her arm raised, right on her wrist. A pink glow started emanating from both her and metagross. Suddenly all of the remnants started glowing too, one by one they released the objects they had on their hands and started floating, each of them with a good distance left between each other.

"Wow, that's magnificent," all of the remnants said in one voice while Sabrina tossed them around, "I could use that."

She ignored them and kept them floating while all of the trainers and their pokemon left the cave in horror. Mark Ward and Jonny watched Sabrina raise her arms, she started levitating as energy visibly emanated from her. She used her telekinetic powers to neutralize everybody still on the cave, then she came down from metagross, having lost her patience. For some reason the remnants still tried to attack her, a few sevipers, raticate, and a few mind controlled remnants who managed to reach the ground; she tossed them away like pieces of paper without even touching them. Sabrina grew desperate and irritated, she wondered what Grimsley had done to those poor mooks to make them so submissive. She brought one of the remnants to her and took off his mask to look at it closer, causing all of the remnants still wearing masks to shout, "No!" At the same time. The mask then exploded on her hand, hurting her,

"No!" Sabrina cried too, "take off all of their masks now!" She hurried to grab all of the remnants she could to take off their masks and advised all of the trainers and policemen to do the same, but they didn't move, they were either confused or just indifferent. But Jonny listened, he struggled with Mark and broke free from him, then started taking off all the masks he could before they all exploded, and only he and Sabrina reacted in true horror. All of the remnants fell to the ground, the red glow disappeared and the cave became totally silent.

She grabbed one of the remnants with the destroyed mask still on, took it off her red hair and started stroking the unscathed parts of her face, thankfully most of it.

"Are they going to be okay?" Jonny cried just as Mark angrily detained him again,

"I cannot know just yet, my best guess is that they'll survive but I don't know with how much damage, a face scar at best...I...I was right, they were going to cause a tragedy, whether they wanted to or not...Grimsley was never here." Sabrina grabbed the mask and clenched her hand, breaking it into pieces, "I will end him."


	16. Conviction

Grimsley traveled all night. He reached Nuvema town just as the damaging sun placed itself on the cloudless sky. It covered professor Juniper's laboratory with light as Grimsley watched from afar. He wasn't afraid, he was sad and angry, he had failed the people he had chosen to protect. He did all of it to give them a second chance. At first he didn't know what he was doing, he saw a bunch of able-bodied teens with nowhere to go, and sought to use them to his advantage. They'd build his casino while they served him drinks. But the truth eventually creeped through him, he just wanted to teach all of them what someone taught him a long time ago, that even an impoverished, gloomy weirdo deserved to be loved and appreciated. It was an overtly sentimental yet valuable lesson, one he was forced to promise to treasure forever. It was only when Bianca arrived that he realized he needed some reminding. And it was only when the teens were taken from him that he realized he was doing it all for them.

He got out of his hiding spot below the trees and into the light, with the intention of revealing himself to his enemies, when he noticed Helma running over to him stricken with fatigue. He had to give her credit, she was defiant to the end, having limped her way all the way from victory road chasing after him. Grimsley had to wait a few minutes for her to catch up to him, and a few more for her to catch her breath,

"you can't give yourself up, you are our only hope," she urged him after regaining her composure. He glanced at her in disbelief,

"what are you talking about? We lost, there's no hope left,"

"but there must be something we can do," Helma pressed,

"yes there is, this is it,"

"but they'll put you in jail," she said to him with noticeable distress in her voice, but Grimsley smiled knowingly,

"that's the least of my worries, it won't be the first nor the second time they put me inside, now go hide somewhere, I'm serious, I don't want them to get you too."

He walked towards the lab, Helma stayed behind him, feeling powerless. When she saw him enter the building she couldn't contain the impulse to run after him, but she stopped before going in, and lamented herself for it. Helma sneaked to the window next to the door and peeped inside through the corner. There she watched Grimsley as he walked into the busy room with his arms raised, and like a true man of shadows he went over unnoticed. He was almost proud of it, he'd be glad if not for all the horrible things that had led him there. He wanted to save them, he'd have to take the blame; it was his only choice. Juniper was there, as were Sabrina, some policemen and other regular folks.

"Officers," Grimsley said, trying to get their attention, alerting no one, "Officers!" He yelled louder to no avail. It was almost funny, he actually let out a small chuckle. "OFFICEEEEERS!" He shouted once more, louder, stretching the word until every eye on the room was on him. They all freaked out and pulled out pokeballs, but stopped right before throwing them out when they saw his arms raised,

"hi," Grimsley calmly said,

"you have the nerve to show your face here after what you did to those good for nothings louts," Juniper chastised him.

After hearing her words, Grimsley directed a stare full of hate at her, startling her so much she couldn't help but physically back away in fear. Grimsley smiled and went back to his usual stoic self,

"indeed, how blatantly brash of me," he said, "I believe you are looking for me, if that's the case I am here to grant you freedom from that arduous task,"

"don't you have something to say to him Sabrina?" Juniper asked, still staggered,

"what is there to say?" Sabrina replied, "he's a putrid human and a coward,"

"so it was you then?" A rotund man with brown hair said as he raised from a chair. He walked over to Grimsley, "what did you do to my daughter you degenerate?"

"ah, you must be Bianca's father...let me tell you what I think about her, she's a better person than all of you put together, you should consider yourselves lucky for knowing her, compared to her you are nothing," Grimsley said,

"what's that supposed to mean you freak?" Bianca's dad furiously asked him with a fist on the air,

"whatever you want it to mean, sir," Grimsley replied.

Bianca's dad became livid, his rage overtook him. He threw a punch right at Grimsley's face, but he managed to dodge it with ease and then taunted him by blinking one eye, enraging him even more. The dad threw two more punches at Grimsley and failed to hit him both times, it was as if he were throwing punches at smoke.

"I'll tell you what,", Grimsley said, "everyone here wants to see this so I'll give you one, come on, do it, I won't move."

The angry man took a peek around the room and found no objectors. He let out a growl filled with fury as he prepared his attack, then released his fist as fast and hard as he could directly at Grimsley's jaw. Grimsley didn't move an inch and remained with the same emotionless expression before and after the hit. Then he gave Bianca's dad a remarkably condescending look, but he wasn't angry anymore, only because he was so bewildered.

"Are we done? Do you want to hear how I controlled the minds of all those people, and played with their wills and lives as if they weren't human, very dastardly endangering them for no apparent reason?" Grimsley continued,

"yes we do," Sabrina replied, "let's go."

Outside, Helma hid on the corner of the lab and saw Sabrina and company take Grimsley away; she was in complete despair, she had nowhere to go. She identified Bainca's dad as he came out of the laboratory and didn't let him out of her sight. Helma then realized that he could lead her directly to Bianca, so she followed him with her eyes until it seemed like he would get lost in the horizon, just then she started following him on foot. As the town was pretty small and it was mostly devoid of buildings, Helma knew that if she did anything in a remotely suspicious way she would definitely get caught.

Some time later, after tailing him from a long distance, she saw Bianca's dad enter a two story house with a blue roof, which Helma deduced was Bianca's house. She drew near, wary of anyone who could see her lurking around, whether a human or a pokemon, it'd be over for Helma if anyone discovered her. She knelt down right next to a small grass hedge on the side of the house and took a deep breath, there was a chance Bianca was inside that very house.

She put both of her hands on the ground and started crawling around the house looking for a way to get in unnoticed, or at least a window to look through. She reached the front of the house, and crawled right below the front window, Helma didn't dare to take a look inside, fearing Bianca's dad could spot her. Suddenly the front door opened as Helma was still at the front of the house, and she crawled her way to the other side just in time to remain unnoticed. She stood up and rested her head on the wall, then she took a deep breath full of relief. A blonde woman came out of the house, Helma deduced it Bianca's mom. She was wearing a hat for the sun and was carrying a big shopping bag with her. Helma waited until the mom was out of sight and carried on to inspect the back of the house.

There she found Bianca. She was on the second floor, most likely in her room, looking out of a window, she had her hand on her cheek and was resting her elbow on the edge of the window, sporting a bored, almost worried expression on her face. Helma felt an instant relief as soon as she saw her pale face. She ran right below her and tried to shout her name, but the mucus that had accumulated in her throat didn't let her, it had been a long while since she had said a simple word. Bianca heard her cleaning her throat, she looked down and shouted her name astounded, then covered her mouth in shock immediately afterwards, hoping her dad didn't hear her.

"Helma!" Bianca said still filled with emotion. She then intentionally lowered her voice, "you don't know how glad I am to see you, please tell me that everyone is okay,"

"I really wish I could, but things couldn't be worse," Helma whispered loud enough for Bianca to listen, "I need your help, I don't know what to do,"

"I also need your help, I'm trapped here, you need to get me out,"

"how? Can't you use your pokemon?"

"I can't, my dad has them,"

"well, maybe my pokemon can help,"

"you have a pokemon?" Bianca asked, truly surprised,

"I do," Helma answered, "but he has a bad leg...I guess I do too now…and because of his condition I try not to endanger him, but I'm certain he can help this time, don't worry Bianca, I'll save you."

Helma gave Bianca a thumbs up and she nodded in return. Then Helma took out a pokeball and pointed it at herself before she pressed it, and a cranidos came out right on her arms. Bianca could notice that one of the pokemon's leg didn't move at all, but the cranidos came out with a great disposition and was noticeably happy to see her trainer. Helma went over to the window at the back of the house carrying cranidos in her arms,

"that window leads to the kitchen, it's closed though so you'll have to break it," Bianca said,

"alright cranidos, you heard Bianca, we are going to need your abilities for this one," Helma said as she extended her arms at the window, holding cranidos in her hands, "I need you to headbutt this window, but you must do it without making any noise whatsoever, do you think you can do it?"

Cranidos happily nodded, then looked at the window with its eyes filled with confidence. The small pokemon pressed its head against the window to apply pressure until it broke down. The window broke into a million pieces moments later, making a bunch of noise, because of it breaking into pieces, and then more noise because of those pieces falling down. Helma's ears stung from how loud it was.

"Oh-oh, we failed," Helma exclaimed, "there's no backing down now, wait here Cranidos." She let her cranidos down gently on the grass and promptly got into the house through the window, stepping on a stove covered with shards of glass in the process. Suddenly Bianca's dad intercepted her holding a stick of wood on his hands, ready to fight.


	17. Convalescence

"Grimsley! I knew you'd come back for her, I won't let you take my daughter away!"

Bianca's dad gripped the piece of wood firmly in his hand, he was livid.

"Hey who are you?!"

He lowered his hand at the sight of Helma, but not his guard. His eyes kept the same visible rage on them.

"I'm a person who thought that you'd be taking a nap, because, maybe all those punches you threw at Grimsley had made you sleepy," Helma said without any trace of fear or fuss in her voice,

"get out of my house!" Bianca's dad raised his hand again.

A door opened, Bianca quickly rushed down the stairs, "stop it dad she's my friend!" She exclaimed as she made her way to take the stick off her dad's hands,

"that's close enough Bianca! Go back to your room right now!" he said to her daughter as both of them struggled to hang on to the improvised weapon,

"Where are my pokemon dad?" Bianca violently asked before pushing her dad back with her shoulder.

Bianca's dad dropped the stick as soon as he locked eyes with her daughter, she was furious. They stood in front of each other breathing heavily, without saying anything; the two family members rabidly stared into each others' eyes. Bianca grunted angrily, she walked into a room on the first floor and slammed the door behind her, causing her dad to regain his anger and chase after her. Meanwhile Helma tried to move as little as possible, she was confused out of her mind. Her primal instinct was telling her not to intervene, maybe because it was a family matter, maybe it was the look on their eyes, but she only listened,

"Get out of here right now! There's nothing for you in here!"

"Yeah right, please get out of my way, Stoutland, if you can hear me please come out,"

"have you lost all common sense?"

"No, have you?"

The struggle continued, things were thrown and dropped on the ground, boxes fell and their contents came out.

"Leave that there, that's not for you,"

"of course dad, of course."

Finally, Bianca's dad came out of the room walking backwards. Bianca's stoutland came after it, and Bianca came out last with a serious expression on her face, albeit with noticeable relief in her eyes.

"It's over," Bianca said triumphantly, "come on Helma let's go upstairs,"

"why?"

"You need to change your clothes,"

"but there's no time,"

"yes there is," Bianca said with a smile on her face. Her dad tried to take a step forward but Stoutland growled just as he moved a muscle, making him stay stoic on his spot. Helma in turn approached Bianca, who noticed her limp,

"what happened to you?" Bianca asked just as confused as she was horrified,

"it's a long story, one I need to tell you as soon as possible," Helma answered,

"of course but first you need to come upstairs so I can check you, Stoutland! If my dad moves just step on him, sorry father."

"okay just let me go get cranidos,"

"I can't believe you!" Bianca's dad mumbled without moving his mouth in a noticeable way, and he kept screaming at the girls without changing his position. He failed to grab their attention, and they willfully ignored him as they went about their way around the house, but at the very least Bianca's dad didn't fail at looking hilarious, he looked like a bizarre statue screaming at the top of his lungs.

Bianca helped Helma go up the stairs and took her to her room. She opened the door and took Helma's hand to lead her inside. Helma placed cranidos on Bianca's comfortable and spacious bed before sitting next to it at the edge. Helma shyly unbuttoned her pants and showed Bianca her injury, just enough to be seen below her right hip. While she was moving to show Bianca better she tried not to touch the injured zone, which was completely red and swollen, at all.

"This looks pretty bad Helma, you need to rest," Bianca said,

"I told you there's no time," she replied,

"we have a bit of time," Bianca touched Helma's hip with the tip of her finger, "does that hurt?"

Helma recoiled, "kind of, it hurts more when I move it," she answered,

"yeah no kidding, there's not a lot I can do with what I have but wait here."

Bianca walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, probably to save Helma the trouble of having to hear her dad's exasperated screams. The bored cranidos, which rested pleasantly on the bed, used the moment to touch Helma's injury with its small but husky paw. The touch was slow and delicate, but Helma recoiled in pain and cried out from it, instantly moving away. Her cranidos looked at her with fear and regret, and Helma, in her distress, patted it in the head to try and calm it down. It was obvious her injury was serious, but the last thing she wanted was for Bianca, or anyone else, to worry about her. Bianca came back in with her wet hands raised and carrying a plastic bag with her teeth, which she then dropped on her bed,

"can you take out the ointment from the bag and open it please?" she said.

Helma obeyed her, she searched the bag and took out a tube of paste, took the cap off and showed it to Bianca. She didn't take it and instead pointed at the red zone on Helma's hip. Helma pointed the tube at that zone and pressed it at the same time she bit her lips, letting out the white paste on it. Bianca put her palm right on the paste and started stroking Helma's hip, scattering the paste all over her surface, while Helma looked at her right in the eyes as she let out a heavy breath filled with restraint.

"Can you take out the gauzes and open the package without touching the gauzes themselves please?" Bianca said still applying the oinment to Helma, who just did as she said,

"now," Bianca continued, "this and a pill I will give you will only lower your pain but we still need to go to the hospital to evaluate the severity of the injury, but the fact that you didn't break down crying when I touched you tells me it's not that bad, the most important thing is that you get some rest and immobilize the extremity,"

"I ran here," Helma added, "all the way from the ruins,"

"well, that was incredibly dangerous and is definitely the reason, or at least a very important one, for which you have not healed yet."

Bianca carefully grabbed the gauze from the package that Helma opened for her, and placed it on the exact position of the injury, then she grabbed the bandages from the bag and finished Helma's quick intervention.

"Alright, now you need to change your clothes," Bianca added,

"why?"

"Because you can't walk around with that uniform, Sabrina may get you,"

"how do you know about Sabrina?"

"We need to talk about this somewhere else, do you think you can change yourself?"

"Yes, I did tell you I came here from the ruins by myself right?"

Bianca smiled at her, then went over to her dresser and picked up some clothes for her. Helma thanked her with a bit of embarrasment in her tone as she took the clothes from her, and then went into the bathroom. Meanwhile Bianca opened her closet and took out an old pink backpack, which she then filled with stuff that she considered would be useful to them on their trip. She added the stuff from the plastic bag too, the ointment, the gauzes, and the vandages in case she had to reapply them to Helma.

Helma came out of the bathroom with an uncomfortable expression on her face, she couldn't remember the last time she had worn a skirt. Probably not since she was a toddler. It was a white skirt that ended below her knees, a pink tank top, a green cardigan, and a pair of all white tennis shoes. An outfit that suited her physically, but would've suited her more if she was more like Bianca and not so much of a tomboy,

"you look great, how do you feel?"

"Uncomfortable, but that may be partly because of my hip."

Bianca grabbed the pink backpack as well as her green messenger bag and they headed downstairs. Helma refused any help from Bianca and she respected her.

"Don't do this Bianca, why won't you listen to me?" Her dad pleaded her on the ground, with Stoutland on top of him,

"from where I'm standing you are the one who's not listening dad, I know you are stubborn, but it is one thing to be stubborn and another very different thing to be intractable,"

"are you leaving me now because you think I don't listen to you?"

"No, I'm leaving because I need to, I'll come back later and I will keep persevering until you hear what I have to say,"

"your so called friend still has to pay for the window though,"

"she does?"

Bianca approached one of the windows on the living room and kicked it twice, breaking it into pieces with her second kick. Afterwards her dad's mouth was a round circle and his eyes looked like plates,

"are you okay?" Helma asked,

"yes, make no mistake dad, I am very, very angry at you...I'll be back soon."

The two girls walked out of the house and into the plains. And before following them, Stoutland got off Bianca's dad and went into his bedroom. A moment later it came out carrying on its mouth a rather luxurious, but by no means tasteful, black walking cane with an amethyst on its handle.

"Hey! What are you doing Stoutland that's mi...!" Bianca's dad cried on the floor before Stoutland growled loudly and angrily at him. "Okay...okay...just make sure not to scratch it," Bianca's dad said to himself as Stoutland got out to meet with the girls.


	18. Unwelcome aid

Bianca and Helma sat on the benches inside the bus station on Opelucid city, where their self imposed mission to find the rest of the remnants had taken them. According to the information that they had gathered, all of the remnants captured by the authorities were placed somewhere in the city, now they just needed to learn their exact location. During their bus trip to Opelucid, Helma told Bianca all about what happened to her in the ruins, when Zinzolin arrived, and Bianca told her everything she saw from her perspective, jointly devicing a common timeline of events. All of their talking and thinking made them tired and hungry, so once they got off the bus Bianca got a nice meal for the two of them as they resigned themselves to wait for an idea to fall from heaven.

Hours passed, hundreds of people walked by them and buses came and went. They kept getting more and more food once they finished eating to distract themselves from the fact that they had zero idea of where to go, it was a classic case of using food to fight boredom. Suddenly, during a slow hour at the station, while Bianca was at her most contemplative state staring at the nothingness in front of her, a boy walked in her line of sight, from right to left in slow motion. Bianca felt a strange sensation when she saw him roaming on her visual field; she had never seen him before and at the same time she knew exactly who he was. He was accompanied by a truly unknown woman, shorter than him but visibly older. Bianca was navigating pleasantly deep in her reverie, so it took her a few seconds to react. She shook her head violently, and when she became conscious again she turned to look at the boy walking away from her and became certain it was Jonny.

She softly elbowed Helma and pointed at him. Helma also turned to look at him while pleasantly chewing on her bread, then she opened her mouth from the shock, disgustingly showing the minced content inside. Once she recogniced him too, both of them took their food with them as they moved closer to Jonny, and continued eating, in a rather entertained manner, as they shamelessly eavesdropped on his conversation with the older woman.

"Are you sure it's okay if you pay for my ticket ma?" Jonny said as he rubbed the back of his head, "you already bailed me out and brought me clothes."

Jonny's words made Bianca start minding his outfit, he was wearing black and white canvas shoes, green skinny jeans, and a red hoodie that had the image of an oran berry with a smily face on his chest; he looked like an almost cool nerd. Almost.

"Meh, we'll figure it out later Jonathan, don't worry about it," his probable mom replied waving her hand up and down, dismissing his worries,

"thanks ma, I promise I'll pay you back," Jonny said. Then he felt two sets of stares directed at him and turned around looking for the source.

"Hey," Jonny said when he found Bianca and Helma, "look ma I told you I had normal friends too, now they look more normal somehow, that's Colette Bianca and that's Helma, ah! Why are you using a cane? Wait...what are you doing here?"

Bianca awkwardly approached him with Helma following behind her even more awkwardly. Bianca raised her hand while she held a small milk carton on her other hand,

"hi," she scantily said,

"I'll be honest with you Jonathan, I did not believe you and I'm still not sure if you paid them to pass as your friends, nice to meet you two,"

"no ma, if I had money I would've paid you back instead, therefore they must be real I mean what more proof do you want?"

"We were looking for you Jonny, do you know where the rest are?" Bianca asked,

"uhh, I do," Jonny answered with an insecure voice, "can you give us a minute ma?"

"Sure whatever," Jonny's mom walked away and got in the line to get bus tickets.

Jonny's countenance changed, his face got serious, almost worried.

"After they retrieved us from the giant chasm we were taken to the main hospital here in Opelucid city, so they could check what happened to us after Zinzolin took control of our minds, and then exploded his devices on our heads, save mine, when he lost...but everyone thinks Grimsley was behind all of it, and they think that there's still some sort of mind control going on because we want to convince them otherwise. It's not that bad, there's enough space, they feed us, but when they are done examining the rest they will prosecute them. My mom went over to the police station to bail me out before that happened, but everyone else is still there,"

"how do we get them out?" Helma asked,

"I don't know, how do you get someone out of prison? It's basically that, some of them are more keen to get out than others,"

"but we need to do something," Bianca added firmly.

Jonny sighed and rubbed his forehead again, "yes we do, but perhaps you need to hear what some of them have to say..."

Bianca watched as Jonny walked up to his mom and told her to get on a bus that would take her home. She agreed, but ordered Jonny to give her a kiss on the cheek, a task that he completed begrudgingly.

* * *

Hours later, the three of them were standing in front of the Opelucid general hospital, a gray building many stories tall, more akin to a fortress than a health care facility, with alert and courteous guards standing around every corner. Bianca had gotten herself a red jacket, and a wig, brown, long and straight. A worse, fake version of Jonny's mom's real hair,

"there's no way this is going to work guys, my bad," Jonny said,

"what are you talking about? You've been here before," Bianca replied,

"alright, first, if I manage to get in it won't matter because you won't, you look nothing like my mom, secondly, if I do get in there's no way I am getting out again, and I don't know if my mom would want to make the trip here again so soon,"

"if that happens I will vouch for you,"

"you are as much in trouble as we are Bianca."

Neither of them noticed Helma approach one of the guards until she was already speaking with him. Then Helma pointed at her friends and Bianca managed to take off her wig a second before the guard looked at them. He made a signal to them to approach him. They hesitated, he made a signal again and both of them approached him at the same time, nervous and weary. The guard said nothing and opened the door when they arrived. And they got in, just like that.

"What did you do Helma?" Jonny asked her, completely amazed,

"it's the cane guys, this is a hospital after all," she said as she walked full of confidence in front of them, and she was right, watching someone of her age and height walk with a cane was nothing short of adorable.

Jonny led them around the clean and silent hallways and from elevator to elevator, and instead of stopping them to ask questions, the guards opened doors for them as soon as they saw Helma. They actually started feeling bad because of how nice they were being treated by the unsuspecting staff.

They reached the seventh floor, where the remnants were being kept. The main hallway bifurcated into two other hallways, one that led to another wing of the hospital and an exit, and another one that led to an isolated block of rooms, which was monitored by a less friendly guard; the latter was the one they needed to get through. They rested their backs on the wall of the hallway, just far enough from the guard for him not to mind them, but close enough so that they could see any remnant who crossed from room to room, and be seen by them.

Time went by, some remnants crossed but they didn't see them. They actually seemed satisfied, even happy. Maybe life in a hospital room wasn't that different from a life in a cave, or maybe it was because they were together, either way it spoke of their former quality of life. Suddenly Lucia passed by, but she turned away as soon as she saw them, noticeably disconcerted. She stood in the middle of the hallway and took a deep breath, just then she turned so the guys could take a look at her face, with noticeable disgust in her demeanor. She had two generous black eyes, completely bloodshot too, her nose was swollen as well, she had a visible scar on the bridge of her nose and her left ear was bandaged. Lucia stood there for a moment, waiting for them to take in all of the imperfects on her face. Then she went and spoke with the guard, she actually had to argue with him for a while even though she was only moving a few feet away, and he ultimately let her through.

"I'm very glad to see you Lucia!" Bianca exclaimed at the same time she went over to hug her. Lucia accepted the hug without a smile and did not reciprocate it,

"what are you doing back here Jonny?" Lucia asked still deadpan,

"don't worry about me, I can get out again I think, they just wanted to see you and talk to you, so that we could plan our next move,"

"ha, good one," Lucia exclaimed with a bored tone,

"we are serious," Bianca continued, "Zinzolin's attempt might have failed, but he is still out there,"

"so what?" Lucia added,

"we can't let him get away with it,"

"what is that going to change? I'll tell you, nothing,"

"come on Lucia,"

"no Bianca, just stop, why do you want to keep this up? I didn't want to fight in the first place and look where I ended up, how I ended up,"

"that's right, it was Zinzolin's fault, we need to clean our names," Helma intervined,

"it's useless, how much lower can we sink to them, in their eyes?" Lucia asked,

"why do you care so much what people think Lucia?" Helma asked back,

"because I care Helma, I care, and I'm done,"

"we were thinking of a way to get you out of here," Bianca continued, "maybe Jonny and I could pass ourselves off as your parents and we could pay your bail out money, what do you think?"

"please don't do that," Lucia said, "and don't try anything, or if you do I don't want to be part of it, I'm just going to stay here and wherever they take me until they let me get out, bye guys...seriously don't try anything." She then turned back without giving them a chance to respond, and promptly went back into one of the rooms.

The guys were devastated. Jonny had to force the girls to get out of the hospital before somebody caught them. The affable guard by the elevator pressed the button with the same helpful disposition but the guys kept the somber expressions on their faces, and they reached the main entrance without a care in the world. Nobody was paying attention to them anyway, or so they thought.

They had the exit right in front of them, when Cheren stepped in to block it with his arms crossed and a smug expression on his face, which made it ten times more punchable.

"Cheren? What are you doing here?" Bianca asked,

"the gym leader?" Helma also asked even more surprised than Bianca,

"indeed, and I could ask you the same, it was as brave as it was stupid of you to come here,"

"I don't want to talk to you right now, or ever," Bianca said,

"wait, what? Why not?!" Cheren's smug expression disappeared and was replaced by one of confusion and worry,

"all of this was basically your fault, you were right there with the remnants before me, you caused all of this by spreading lies about Grimsley and them,"

"that's ridiculous Bianca what have they done to you?"

Jonny stepped in front of the girls, "dude, I'm done," he said, "I have acquired enough self esteem to realize that the only reason you are blaming us is because you don't see us as people. It would be too easy for me to say that this is all your fault, I'd say you don't have any redeemable qualities and I'd direct all of my anger at you, unfortunately, you are too much of a person for me to treat you like that, however, seriously dude, you were on the cave, you saw what we were doing, or rather, what we weren't doing, do you really think you are innocent in this?"

"Wait, hold on, I didn't hurt anybody,"

"get out of our way,"

"I can't let you do that, I need to put a stop to this,"

"put a stop to what? You don't even know what's going on, you are a joke." Helma lost her patience, she carelessly walked up to Cheren and put him in a headlock, then Jonny helped her take him out of the hospital.

"Let's take him with us guys, I have an idea," Bianca said,

"what are you talking about? Somebody help me! I'm being kidnapped, why does nobody care?! Come on! Anyone?! Nobody cares, nobody ever cares." Cheren cried out, but to everyone around they seemed like a group of friends, making use of their youthful innocence and joy in a quite indiscreet, and a bit disrespectful manner. Nobody cared for Cheren as they dragged him far away with them.


	19. Reconciliation

Bianca, Jonny, and Helma, dragged Cheren against his will to the woods outside Opelucid city. Not a single person who crossed their path cared, neither did they look twice at the short girl carrying a bespectacled, tie wearing boy in a headlock. And the guys didn't care about being seen either, Helma even used him as a pragmatic aid for her leg instead of the cane. She had to admit that Cheren worked better as support, although he was decidedly less stylish than the cane.

They and their captive arrived at a quiet and desolate place in the middle of the green grass, surrounded by pine trees. Jonny decided to stop and sit on the ground, thinking that could be a good place to rest and to figure out their next move.

"capturing this dude was a great idea," he said, "we could take our frustrations out on him and nobody would care, but after that we'd still have to come up with a plan to actually solve our problems...any suggestions?"

"I've got one," Helma said as she tightened the grip she had on Cheren's head, making it harder for him to breathe, "Grimsley gave himself up to the police, and he told them he was the mastermind behind the giant chasm fiasco in a ploy to get the rest of the remnants off the hook, but the remnants themselves are saying that it was all Zinzolin's fault, because it's the truth, and because it's not fair for Grimsley to take all the blame, regardless of their motives their stories contradict themselves, which is affecting our cause,"

"good observation, what do you think Bianca?"

"well, uh, most of the remnants do not want to cooperate with us because they fear they'll just get in more trouble, so we should talk to Grimsley and tell him to change his story instead,"

"that's...an idea," Jonny continued, "but he's probably in jail by now."

Cheren sensed Helma's distraction and freed himself from her headlock, falling butt first on the wet grass. Both Helma and Jonny reacted immediately and tried to grab him again but he started crawling backwards with the aid of his sweaty hands,

"stop this right now you beasts! What is wrong with you?" Cheren exclaimed on the ground,

"we could ask you the same," Jonny replied,

"oh yeah though guy? Let's find out who's wrong then, you should've never messed with a gym leader."

Bianca stepped forward decisively, "I've got my pokemon with me Cheren, why don't you threaten me instead?" She then asked with significant candor,

"I have no intention of hurting you or your pokemon Bianca, but you do need to come with me so you can face your comeuppance, and it is best if you stay out of my way,"

"you'll do no such thing," Bianca said. She took out a pokeball and Cheren got up and did the same. Both of them looked at each other's eyes and realized a fight was unavoidable.

Bianca called Musharna out, Cheren called his cincino. The two pokemon came out with the same aggressive attitude as their trainers, and the visible aggressiveness on their eyes clashed jarringly with their otherwise adorable appearances.

"Musharna, use trick room," Bianca exclaimed as she moved her hand forward, "I had a lot of time to come up with new and more vicious strategies while I was grounded on my room, so thanks for calling my dad on me,"

"he came on his own, Cincino, use tail slap."

Cincino stepped forward. Gray and white fur covered its small, plushie-like body. Cheren's pokemon was as fast and dangerous as it looked adorable and inoffensive; very. It attacked first, Cincino ran up to Musharna and jumped to strike it with its tail, slapping the hovering pokemon on the face four times, each more hurtful than the last,

"don't worry Bianca, you can beat him just like Grimsley did!" Jonny shouted from the sidelines,

"shut up! I was trapped in there with all of you, I wasn't given a fair chance," Cheren shouted and growled, "you see! This is what I am talking about, do you have any idea how humiliating it would have been for me if everyone found out I got taken down by a bunch of mooks? My reputation would've been destroyed."

Bianca stayed silent, she only observed as musharna closed its eyes and became engulfed in pink glow. Then all of the sudden four walls, a floor, and a ceiling appeared on the battlefield, made out of blinking transparent squares that disappeared seconds later. Still, the pokemon could feel the effects it had left around them, the pink round pokemon, which was usually slower, could move faster and more freely while cincino, normally a fast pokemon, started struggling to move its limbs,

"perfect Musharna, come back, Stoutland, come out," Bianca exclaimed, her pokemon went back to her and the fluffy four legged stoutland came out to replace it,

"Stoutland, use protect,"

"Cincino, use tail slap again."

Cincino ran to attack Bianca's pokemon once more but didn't make one scratch on it.

"Cheren, you are like the youngest gym leader ever, who knows? Maybe you'll become the most powerful trainer of all time one day..."

"I doubt that," Jonny intervened,

"...but as it stands now," Bianca continued, "there are many more trainers who are more powerful and experienced than you, and Grimsley is one of them, you were always very impatient...now watch this, Stoutland use last resort!"

The four legged pokemon growled heroically and winded up its powerful attack, then it sprinted like a bullet and hit Cincino directly with its head, throwing the small pokemon far away, instantly defeating him,

"Grimsley is much more powerful than me," Cheren said as he called his pokemon back, there was a strange shine on his glasses. If Bianca could've seen past them, she would've noticed the despair in his eyes, "so why should I bother right? I should just let him take over Unova as the new leader of team plasma and freeze everything and everyone again, listen to what you are saying Bianca!"

He then nervously called out a stoutland of his own, Bianca's tactics had taken him by surprise, and he didn't know how to handle it. And another look into Bianca's eyes just filled Cheren with more doubt and hesitation, she looked like she wanted to end him,

"what I would like is for you to listen to me Cheren," Bianca said incensed, "you've got it all wrong...I will have to knock the rigidity out of you,"

"let's see who's pokemon is faster, stoutland use return!" Cheren cried out,

"Stoutland, use last resort," Bianca shouted,

"oh no, mine was faster," Cheren lamented, as he saw his pokemon struggle more than Bianca's thanks to Musharna's trick room, which was still in play. Bianca's stoutland winded up an extremely powerful attack and released it at Cheren's own stoutland, knocking it out with one attack,

"I'm faster than you and yet you've attacked first," Cheren said as he called his fainted pokemon back, "and I'm stronger than you and yet you've beaten me, tell me Bianca, if you are so wise, how was I supposed to react? They were all members of team plasma after all,"

"I wasn't," Helma intervened, infusing even more doubt into Cheren's mind; he had already lost. He turned to Helma and looked at her in the eyes for the first time ever. He remembered the first time he had seen her and Jonny, back at the ruins of N's castle, way before all the tragedies had taken place. He remembered when he found Grimsley, who during that moment seemed like a cold and arrogant douchebag. His presence provoked aggressiveness. Cheren interpreted it as coldness and disdain instead of what it was, wariness and caution. Cheren told the remnants and Grimsley to stop, when they already had stopped. He told them to leave, when they had already hidden on a cave. He was basically breaking into their home, how were they supposed to react? But they did not tell him anything, how was he supposed to react? A fight ensued, he lost. They kept him there because they feared that he would go back to his house and cry to his friends about what some mooks on a cave did to him, which is exactly what Cheren did once he escaped. He cried to Colress and told him they were going to take over the world. Cheren stopped daydreaming.

Bianca then exchanged pokemon once more, stoutland returned to her and musharna returned to the battlefield. Meanwhile Cheren released his porygon-Z to continue the fight, but the red and blue toy-like pokemon came out unsure and distracted; it could sense its trainer's despondence and doubt.

"Cheren, I get where you are coming from, I really do, there's nothing wrong with being cautious." Bianca took a pause from the battle, but Cheren didn't,

"Porygon-Z, use shadow ball!"

"Musharna, use light screen!" Bianca shouted right after Cheren, causing her pokemon to create another blinking wall in front of it for just a second. It partially protected it from Porygon-Z's shadow ball which hit it right on its head, but Musharna didn't faint,

"it was valid for you to be wary of them, but if it weren't for you spreading lies about them so quickly when they weren't doing anything wrong, we could have focused on the actual threat, there's somebody else moving in the shadows why won't you believe me?...Musharna use trick room,"

"Porygon-Z use shadow ball again." Cheren's pokemon attacked first, his black spherical attack hit Musharna again. Bianca's pokemon really resented the attack. It was obvious from its look that Musharna had almost no energy to go on, its eyes looked tired and sad, and yet it stayed wide awake, and trapped both pokemon inside a trick room once more.

"It's not personal Bianca," Cheren said,

"what do you mean it isn't personal, how am I not supposed to take it personal?...Musharna come back, Chandelure come out!" Bianca angrily exchanged her pokemon for a third time, she was rabid. Meanwhile Cheren had broken down even more, he was on the verge of tears.

"I don't hate you at all Bianca," he audibly growled, "I just wish you wouldn't act like this!"

"Chandelure, use overheat," Bianca shouted at her pokemon. The fire ghost type obeyed her dilligently and showered Porygon-Z with fire from all sides, fainting it instantly.

"You obviously hate me Cheren, I thought you were my friend,"

"how can you say that? I did everything for you!" A tear rolled down Cheren's cheek as he called another fainted pokemon back and called his Bouffalant out,

"give me a break!" Bianca exclaimed, "Chandelure, use overheat again!"

"Stop!" Cheren shouted, he couldn't continue. He lowered his arms and ran towards Bianca, only to be stopped by Chandelure on his way. The half ghost type kept Cheren from reaching her and he couldn't help but back away, filled with fright,

"tell your pokemon to let me pass," Cheren said as a drop of sweat fell from his cheek,

"why should I?" Bianca asked,

"please Bianca."

Chandelure took a furtive glance at Bianca, who nodded, just then the ghost stood down and let Cheren pass through. He knelt right in front of her and grabbed her hands,

"I wasn't lying when I said I did everything for you, I only have two real friends and you are the most important one. I sent you that letter because out of all people I wanted you to save me, you were the only one who always respected me, from the beginning you never doubted of my ability, unlike everyone else, I wouldn't have been embarrassed at all if you had come and saved me from Grimsley,"

"wow," Jonny intervened again, "I guess you and I have a lot more in common than I thought, I like you now,"

"really?" Cheren asked,

"ha, no way dude that was a joke."

"We have to finish this...Chandelure use calm mind," Bianca spoke with a calm, even soothing voice,

"just wait and listen to me Bianca,"

"I'll listen to you, don't worry," she said, and chandelure stayed put and focused to regain the energy it lost with the last attack,

"fine whatever, Bouffalant! Use head charge...wait, don't!" Cheren shouted, regretting his words almost immediately. His horned pokemon sprinted all the way towards Chandelure and tried to tackle it head on, passing right through it without dealing any damage,

"really Cheren? A normal attack against a ghost...oh well, Chandelure use overheat again," Bianca said and Chandelure listened, showering Bouffalant with fire and fainting it right after the flames ceased,

"It's over, now you must listen to me." Bianca moved his hands away from Cheren, "I was there, were you were, and I saw a group of good people who regretted their past actions and changed, but even after seeing that with your own eyes you weren't willing to listen to them."

Cheren put his hands on the grass and started tearing pieces apart, "fine, I'm not sure if team plasma and Grimsley aren't evil yet though I must say...but you are right, I could have listened to you many times but I didn't, I was too proud, I wish I could take it all back I really do, please forgive me,"

"well," Bianca continued, "if you are being truly honest, I can't see a future where I don't forgive you eventually, but I'm not quite ready yet,"

"I understand," Cheren said, rather relieved,

"it will be even harder, nigh impossible, for me to forgive you, just saying," Jonny spoke with his arms crossed,

"alright guys let's give him a break," Bianca said, "there's something you can do for us that will certainly speed up the process Cheren,"

"what is it?" He asked expectant,

"get us a meeting with Grimsley..."


	20. Zinzolin's raid

Colress had spent the last few days in a state of numbness. Pain was the only feeling he could expressly distinguish, and only when he was awake. More specifically, when Zinzolin allowed him to be awake. He didn't know what time it was or where he was exactly, he only knew he was sitting on a wooden chair inside a poorly lit room, with two or more people also there.

"It's seems that bitch has finally gone to sleep," Colress heard,

"finally," he heard from another voice, "go get the target...and you know what to do...well well well, how peculiar, perhaps when one bitch falls asleep another bitch wakes up."

Knuckles contacted with Colress right cheek, there was pain on the outside as well as the inside of his mouth. Then he received a second smack on his left cheek, this time with an open hand. He had learned how to distinguish the difference between each sensation from the sheer number of times he had felt each of them. He opened his eyes as wide as he could with his head tilted to the side, it was hard for his tired eyesight to adjust, but he knew Zinzolin was right in front of him.

It had to be him. His forehead covered in sweat monopolized all of the light that came from the ceiling, it took Colress a few seconds to notice that he was wearing one of his own creations, for which he now felt deeply guilt-ridden, a 'will altering mask' as he liked to call it in an effort to justify his wrongdoings. What Colress did in the past destroyed his humanity, now he didn't deserve to be classified as a human being.

"Your stupid mind controlling machine failed us," Zinzolin said as he smacked Colress one more time, "now I'll have to do your work for you and make some adjustments, luckily I've found a way to enhance it...remember your dear friend Sabrina? I had no idea how powerful she was...can you imagine what I can do with all of her power...and your stupid machine, together? Absolutely no one would stand in my way, I'd win instantly."

In his poor state, Colress wondered if Zinzolin at least considered him a human, and if he was evil enough to act with such cruelty while knowing that his victim was a person full of thoughts and feelings. Perhaps Zinzolin was not capable of seeing his own humanity, perhaps he had lost it some time in the past, perhaps he never had it.

and if Zinzolin considered anyone human, including himself. The door opened, three men with gray short hair entered the room carrying another very tired and battered man by the shoulders, then sat him on a chair across the room,

"ahh, Rood, how have you been? It's nice to see you again," Zinzolin said as he ignored Colress and centered his attention on the robed man who seemed genuinely scared,

"it's so stange seeing you in the city," Zinzolin continued, "...on a cheap motel downtown...with Sabrina, a rather bizarre situation, why is she there?"

Rood looked away from him, "...I have nothing to say to you Zinzolin," he stopped his lip quivering to speak, then continued it,

"open him," Zinzolin coldly finalized, showcasing his abismal lack of patience.

The three men beside Zinzolin eagerly grabbed Rood and violently ripped his robe open with their hands, revealing his round, hairy belly. Colress then recognized the three men as the members of the shadow triad, they had become more decrepit but had retained all of their ruthlessness.

"Alright, go back and do as I told you while I speak with our friend," Zinzolin directed his orders to the three men, who hesitated for a moment before they left the room. Colress could sense how they were eager to have some fun with Rood, like Zinzolin was about to have. Meanwhile Colress started stretching his legs and arms in a slow and sneaky manner, but the faint and subdued movements were difficult to perform, as it had been a while since he had walked on his own.

Zinzolin took out a white plastic gun, with a flask filled with red liquid on its handle, and put the end of the barrel right up Rood's belly button,

"your tummy's going to get hot Rood, why don't you just talk to me?" He said, then fired the gun and made Rood let out a pungent cry filled with pain. Zinzolin started moving the gun around Rood's abdomen, visibly frying the gray hairs off his skin. His horrible screams almost sounded like a tune that changed accordingly to Zinzolin's movements all over his belly.

"Alright alright I'll sing but please stop!" Rood cried out,

"you are already singing, but fine," Zinzolin said dastardly,

"after they arrested the team plasma remnants Sabrina found me and detained me for interrogation!"

"WHY!?" Zinzolin shouted without taking the weapon off his skin,

"Because she said she needed to investigate further!"

"Why did she take you to that cheap motel on the corner?"

"Because she's not from here and doesn't trust anyone, because she thought there were snitches around, that something wasn't right? I don't know, all I know is that she said nobody would find us there!"

"Or so she thought, you do know we found out about her location because of you right? After you went and snitched to Grimsley about my plan, I followed you and I didn't let you out of my sight, knowing that you'd be useful to me in one way or another, and you came through, Sabrina has no idea what we have prepared for her, the motel is surrounded, and now that she's asleep..."

"Please take this off of me!"

"Did she ask about Grimsley?"

"Yes,"

"and what did you say?"

"I told her everything I knew about him, almost nothing, I told her that he might be working with you, or alone, or not plotting anything at all, or just using the remnants as servants, I don't know!"

Zinzolin removed the weapon from his belly and calmly cleaned the abundant tears and drops of sweat off Rood, he was basically caressing his face, in a rather gentle and sweet manner, but it was obviously a fake gesture and Rood knew this well.

"What did you tell her about me?" Zinzolin affably asked,

"everything, I told her everything," Rood said, visibly lamenting every word that came out of his mouth, "I told her how you wanted to reform team plasma and continue with Ghetsis plan, about how you thought that kyurem was still in the giant chasm when it wasn't, and how you took all of the remnants from Grimsley and the weapons from Colress..."

Rood closed his eyes and lamented himself some more. Zinzolin waited patiently until he opened his eyes again and then stuck the weapon back on his abdomen, resuming the torture.

"Doesn't matter! It doesn't matter! Even if she takes out her pokemon we'll poison them, or we'll make them fall asleep, and then we'll make her fall asleep and then I'll take her power!"

Rood let out a loud and violent growl as he looked directly at the wounding tip of the weapon parading through his abdomen; the pain and suffering were visible in his eyes. He clenched his teeth and looked at Zinzolin with hate and fury, winded up an attack with his open hand however he could, and smacked him hard on the head, knocking him back. Then, with his visible abdomen still vibrant red, Rood went for Zinzolin's neck and started choking him with both of his hands,

"you are weak and you lost! Just accept it! You are a sore loser who wishes he was stronger! That's all you are! Getting power from someone else doesn't mean it is yours!"

"SHUT UP!" Zinzolin quickly hit him with the gun while the barrel was still burning hot, right on his cheek,

"all you ever wanted was for people to think you are strong!" Rood pressed harder, now with his cheek also red,

"SHUT UP!" Zizolin shouted once more. He dropped the gun on the ground, the flask was empty. He started viciously punching Rood on the face repeatedly.

Colress stood up and took a deep breath, his body was so weak and he felt so tired that he had to focus on not falling down. He checked his pockets, no pokeballs, and the room was empty save for two chairs and an empty trash can, so he wisely chose to run out of the room and search for the nearest exit while the two old men kept fighting. Sadly, as Colress ran through the darkened hallway past the door, he failed to notice the set of stairs in front of him and fell all the way to the floor below, falling right on his left elbow. He spent a couple of minutes on the ground feeling the pain and lamenting himself while the fight upstairs continued. Then it stopped, and Colress could only hope for Rood's victory to be the result.

"AM I WEAK NOW ROOD?" Zinzolin angrily shouted upstairs.

Colress couldn't stay there. He focused all of his strength on getting up and went for the door in front of him. He opened it and found himself on a street at night, the scenery seemed eerily familiar, he knew he had been on that city before but in his state he couldn't be exactly sure of where he was. Still weak, Colress turned at both sides and found a brighter light to his left so he followed it. He reached the end of the street and stopped at the corner, bewildered. There was a building on fire across the street. It was a two story building which covered the whole block, although the street was a short one, it had plenty of parking space in front of it and the tall sign on the front, as well as the shape of the building itself, led Colress to believe it was a motel, and the motel was burning.

Right then Colress started feeling slightly more drowsy than he already was. He looked up and found six amoonguss on top of the three buildings cornering the motel, two on each roof, all of them wearing red masks, his red masks. And all of them were releasing what could only be spores and poison gas onto the air.

It wouldn't take much time for the spores to have an effect on him, and as far as he knew Zinzolin was right behind him and he wasn't keen on letting him escape, so Colress moved away from the scene as fast as he could in spite of the horrible state in which he was, and hid on an alley a few buildings past the motel, far enough to avoid the spores and the poison gas, but close enough to observe as the situation unfolded.

Meanwhile on the motel, two of the shadow triad members went up a set of stairs that wasn't on fire yet. They got on the hallway on the second floor, then forcefully knocked down one of the many doors there with just one kick. A struggle ensued once they went in, and a few seconds later one of them flew out of the window, shattering it in the process, and landed on his back on the pavement on the parking lot, badly hurt. Sabrina then got out of the window holding a black cloth of some kind, she grabbed onto the railing with both of her hands and used it to jump down to the parking lot, stepping on the shadow triad member on the ground. She then tied the cloth over her mouth and nose.

On the floor above, the remaining triad member seemed confused as he kept looking for Sabrina inside the room. Below him Sabrina closed her eyes and raised her hands, the bracelets on her hands started glowing, then the bed on Sabrina's room violently flew out directly at the man inside, and threw him out of the window unto the hallway outside, unconscious.

The third shadow triad member then arrived at the parking lot, he growled with anger and released two bisharps ready to fight, then the three of them ran to confront her. Sabrina sensed their presence, she opened her eyes and took a swift look around, locking her sight on the dark pokemon approaching her.

"What will you do against adversaries you can't control with your psychic poweres?!" The shadow triad shouted.

Sabrina closed her eyes again and directed her hands at the tall sign on the corner, which showcased the motel rates and the number of rooms vacant. The sign moved, first just a bit, then it got thrown out directly at one of the bisharps which flew away fainted after the sign violently impacted it.

The other two attackers stopped cold and turned away, knowing they were outmatched. Sabrina quickly made her hands into fists at the same time the sign broke into a million pieces, which she then threw at the other bisharp as it ran away. The bisharp kept running away as Sabrina kept throwing pieces of metal at its back, severely weakening the pokemon after each hit. Sabrina continued her ruthless attack until finally the pokemon fell on the ground, fainted. And she wasn't done, Sabrina then made the last triad member himself levitate to stop him from escaping, then she pulled him towards her. She stared into his eyes as he traveled through the air towards her, she could see the fear in his eyes, he knew exactly what awaited him, he could see his painful future in her eyes. She punched him hard on the face when he arrived at her, her fist and his face clashed with each other at the same speed, and he fell on the ground unconscious.

Zinzolin then arrived at the scene with a fiendishly smug look on his battered face, carrying a gas mask on his hand; he wasn't scared.

"Stop right there Sabrina, if you know what's better for the pokemon on top of the buildings," he heinously shouted, and she immediately understood what he was saying, "that's right...remember what happened at the giant chasm? Except this time I've packed a bit of extra power on the masks, their heads will disappear...I can guarantee it," he said, then he smiled and then put on the mask,

"You are a coward!" Sabrina shouted, with a tone that revealed her powerlessness,

"how slowly are you breathing? You can't hold your breath forever, why don't you take that off your face and take a long and deep breath for me, that should be enough."

Sabrina hesitated, she knew the air was too dense and filled with poison for her pokemon to act, and she had become way too tired to continue,

"NOW!" Zinzolin shouted as he took out a remote control.

Sabrina had no choice but to obey him, she took the cloth off her mouth, revealing it to be a pillowcase, then she took three deep breaths. Her eyes immediately changed, she started tumbling on the spot. Before succumbing to the spores, however, she tried to take the remote control off Zinzolin's hands simply by moving her fingers, but Zinzolin held on to it with all of his strength and moved his finger to trigger the explosives on the masks. Sabrina managed to push him away before he could do it, and before Zinzolin could trigger the explosives again, she channeled all of the energy and power she had left and broke the remote control into a million pieces, before collapsing,

"run!" She shouted before hitting the ground, obviously directing her order at Colress, who deduced that Sabrina could sense he was near. He obeyed her and ran away, turning only once to see Sabrina down on the pavement.


	21. The return of the man of shadows

Bianca and company hated him at the moment, but Cheren had come through for them, and they were more than willing to admit it. He learned of Grimsley's whereabouts by himself, and personally took Bianca to see him at the police station in Opelucid city. They were hoping that his status as a gym leader would grant them access to Grimsley, but Cheren was certain it wouldn't be that simple and, as their chances of securing a meeting with the prisoner depended solely on Cheren's ease of speech, he thought it best to only take Bianca with him, to minimize the risk of failure. So Jonny and Helma reluctantly agreed to stay behind.

The two of them walked inside the police station, and Cheren requested an urgent meeting with the prisoner, quickly revealing that he was part of Sabrina's special task force to stop the team plasma resurgence, which happened to be true, but obviously she hadn't ordered him to do anything, in fact he had not seen her, nor had he heard from her, for some time now. The experienced and robust policemen guarding the station led the two of them to an interrogation room, but as soon as Bianca opened the door with the intention of getting in, another policeman appeared and blocked the door for her,

"what is going on here?" the policeman said,

"...well, she's the one who will be speaking with Grimsley today," Cheren replied,

"is this a joke? Do you actually know who the prisoner is?"

"I know him personally," Cheren remarked pridefully, "she does too, better than you and I in fact,"

"yeah, there's no way I'm letting that happen," the policeman said as he closed the door with his foot,

"officer, what's your name?" Cheren continued,

"Ward, Mark Ward,"

"officer ward, you do know who I am, correct?"

"I do," Mark replied,

"I am a gym leader and I am way younger than you, for who knows how many years,"

"you are twelve right?" Mark said nonchalantly,

"...sure, and I happen to be your superior, so take your foot off that door and let the woman pass."

Mark said nothing, neither did he take the foot off the door. Cheren grew tired of him and his demeanor and tried to open the door himself but failed to move Mark's foot one inch, to which the policeman replied by laughing mockingly before opening the door himself. He even made a gesture with his hand to Bianca telling her to enter, which she then did without looking at him. Afterwards Cheren tried to follow her inside but Mark stopped him,

"only one of you can talk to him at a time," Mark said, and closed the door behind Bianca.

She entered a small room with the walls painted of a dull grayish blue, containing two chairs separated by a rectangular metal table. There was only one window right next to the door, all black, probably one sided, and the whole room was poorly illuminated by a lamp hanging from the ceiling. Bianca sat on the chair farthest from the door, facing the door, and waited for Grimsley to come in. He entered moments later, wearing all black shoes, deep blue pants, a gray t-shirt, and a shiny set of handcuffs on his hands. He sat across from her and was followed inside by the officer Ward, who closed the door behind him and stood with his back against a wall with his arms crossed.

"You should tell everyone the truth, that Zinzolin was behind all of this," Bianca promptly said, not minding the policeman in the least, "all the remnants are telling the truth so your story clashes with theirs,"

"where are they?" Grimsley asked,

"at the hospital here in Opelucid, they are being evaluated after all of the mind control and further shock they went through, and when they are done they'll be processed,"

"...just get them to admit that it was all part of my master plan, that I was the one responsible,"

"they'll never do that, they want the truth."

Grimsley became enraged, he didn't show it but Bianca could tell,

"we need to focus on Zinzolin, he needs to be stopped," she said, "you can help by admitting that he was behind all of this and expose him as the serious threat that he represents, this plan of yours doesn't seem to be working."

Grimsley stared at the wall for a few seconds, then gave Bianca a rather condescending look,

"...no, I don't think I'll be doing that, he got away with it and they'll never believe me, I should have told everyone the truth from the beginning because that always works...my bad,"

"what, you won't do anything?"

"Indeed I won't, nothing at all, now get out of here won't you, I was taking a nap, they've got nice beds in here,"

"you can't just give up,"

"I most certainly can,"

"but at least listen to me,"

"nope, didn't I tell you to leave?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"Are you seriously asking me that now?"

"Don't you remember what you said to me?"

"No."

Bianca angrily raised from her chair, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, from the man that taught her not to undervalue an attempt to change, he was doing just that.

"You are worst than a child," Bianca shouted at him,

"You are one," Grimsley replied,

"yeah? You want a child? Here you go." Bianca stuck her tongue out at the same time she put her finger below her eye and stretched her skin downwards,

"I hope you rot in here," she exclaimed before storming out of the room and slamming the door behind her,

"...time to go back to the cell," Mark deadpanned.

Grimsley stood up and opened the door for himself, he had a good view of Bianca and her nervous friend as they walked out of the station; she was fuming. Mark then got out of the interrogation room and led Grimsley all the way back to his cell, which was located on the second floor past a few spacious hallways. Grimsley walked silently while Mark walked behind him, mocking him and taunting him along the way.

"I can't wait for you to be taken into prison, solitary confinement, I'll oversee the transfer myself...did I tell you we had to move the rest of the perps to a different precinct just to accommodate you? You should feel honored...your girlfriend seems nice, do you think she's cheating on you with that gym leader? At least he's the same age as her...how old is she, eighteen?...I'm sure I can steal her from that loser, show her what a real man looks like."

Finally, after an excruciating walk, the two men reached the holding cell. Mark opened Grimsley's handcuffs and he went inside, then Mark locked the door, and stayed there,

"ha, she took her tongue out at you..." Mark stuck his face between two bars of the cell, took his tongue out, and started waving it suggestively, "...seriously, what's her name?...She has to be a big nuisance right?...I mean for someone to break it off with a girl with that face and that body even after she visits you in here, she has to be seriously crazy, I mean she likes you, what other proof do you need?" Mark continued his taunting, seemingly without a near end,

"I didn't break it off, I just wanted her to leave," Grimsley finally spoke,

"and why is that? You didn't want her to see you like this, how hard you have fallen, with a prisoner's outfit instead of that colorful attire that you always wear?" Mark taunted Grimsley, then continued waving his tongue at him,

"No, I wanted her to leave...because I didn't want her to see the carnage."

Grimsley moved in front of Mark and bit his tongue. In less than a second, Mark had Grimsley right in front of him so close they could be kissing, and Grimsley had Mark's tongue in his mouth, and it seemed like he wouldn't let go of it anytime soon.

Mark tried not to freak out, he noticed that Grimsley wasn't giving him his tongue back but tried to keep calm, and laughed in a dismissive manner; it was nothing more than a rather disgusting prank. But Grimsley responded to his laugh by clenching his teeth, hard. He was able to taste Mark's blood right on his mouth. Mark caved in and officially lost it, he started screaming and mumbling at Grimsley but he wouldn't listen, his eyes were dead set on Mark's eyes but there wasn't any trace of emotion in them. Without loosening the grip on Mark's teeth, Grimsley moved forward until it was him who was touching the cell bars, then he pulled his head backwards violently, smashing Mark's forehead on the bars. He fell down and Grimsley used the opportunity to rip the set of keys from his waist and let himself out.

As soon as Grimsley got out of the cell all the lights went out, his visibility instantly decreased. He got in the hallway, and found the other three policemen in the station standing at the end of it,

"there's been a power outage," the oldest one said with a mischievous smirk on his face,

"I see," Grimsley replied,

"unfortunately some of the important appliances that we use here have stopped working...including the security cameras," the policeman continued, knowing Grimsley did not believe a word he said, while the two men by his side seemed to be just as glad as him.

"That's quite unfortunate," Grimsley said with the sarcasm blatantly noticeable in his voice.

An arcanine appeared towering behind the policemen, they let the orange and black giant pokemon walk in front of them with wicked smiles on their faces. The arcanine showed its considerable fangs and growled, not like a pokemon who only wanted their enemy to go away, but rather like a pokemon glad that their enemy was in front of them. Without hesitation the arcanine ran with extreme speed at Grimsley, who barely saw how the pokemon tackled him on the chest and onto the floor; if it weren't for the rush of adrenaline that he got right after seeing that beast that would've hurt like hell. Arcanine growled once more, making Grimsley's skull tremble from the sheer vibrations, then waited for Grimsley to get up to attack him with its fangs. Grimsley Grabbed the beast from the neck and stopped it from eating his face from just a few inches but the pokemon was too big for him, Grimsley went to the ground once more now with the beast on top of him.

He tried to avoid the beast's crunch to his face by grabbing it from its neck, Arcanine was more than eager to take a piece of him off him, but Grimsley wouldn't give in regardless of how close arcanine's fangs got to his skin, he could feel its warm breath on the inside of his nostrils. The struggle gave Grimsley enough time to accommodate his body well enough and he kneed arcanine in the groin, then flexed his hip until his knee was almost touching his chest and kicked Arcanine right on the nose, pushing it back and making it let out a big cry. Grimsley wasn't done, he rolled the arcanine until it was on its back and knelt with the pokemon's head between his legs, to squeeze its neck with his thighs and put it to sleep.

Suddenly another arcanine growled and before Grimsley could react he already had the second pokemon on his back, its head was right next to Grimsley's own, and its sudden growl hurt his ear deeply. Grimsley quickly grabbed Mark's keychain from the ground just as the second arcanine sank its paws into his back, Grimsley placed a key between his fingers, eyed the second arcanine's dewlap, just below his chin, then moved to strike. Moments later there was blood on his shoulder and the second arcanine was crying behind him, so he resumed squeezing the first arcanine's neck.

Then Grimsley heard fire, he turned back and saw the second arcanine covered in flames. He urged the arcanine below him to go to sleep but the pokemon wouldn't give out. There wasn't time, he knew the arcanine behind him had already started sprinting toward him but waited until the last possible moment and rolled to his side, leaving the first arcanine above him to take the flaming attack. However the first arcanine didn't move or made a sound, instead it seemed like it was smiling, it was enjoying the fire. Grimsley let go of the pokemon and crawled backwards until Mark stopped him, grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back into the fight just as the arcanine with blood under its chin breathed fire unto the other, increasing its power.

Grimsley took off his gray shirt and wrapped it around his right hand, then spat on it. Whether he thought it would actually help his fist avoid getting burned, or if he just did it as an ironic gesture because it obviously wouldn't, would be the subject of a debate that he'd have with himself later, if he somehow were to survive.

He raised his fists and adapted an orthodox stance, with his right fist forward, then the two arcanine came after him. He used his elbow to stop the one with the bloodied chin from sinking its fangs into him, while the other one sank them deep into his right thigh. He screamed and punched it right on the bridge of its nose, freeing himself from its fangs, only for the injured one to bury its paws into his chest, five sharp claws stung and burned his skin and muscle. Grimsley took a step backwards and promptly kicked the injured one right on its head, while the other one used the opportunity to bite into Grimsley's right arm. He threw a left hook right on its gullet, his target opened its eyes wide and let out a pungent cry before going down on its back, and Grimsley quickly knelt with his thighs gripping its neck.

The injured arcanine growled louder and attacked Grimsley from behind, biting into his left shoulder and making him bleed instantly but he didn't let go of his grip on the one below him. The one on his back took its teeth out of him and then buried them deeper covering part of his chest, then used its paw to hit Grimsley on the side of the face, damaging part of his ear and bursting blood vessels on his eye, turning it fully red, but Grimsley only pressed his thighs harder, and the one below him suffered the effects of the constant asphyxiation, finally fainting.

The second arcanine bit harder through Grimsley's skin, he took the shirt off his right hand and threw a punch filled with anger at the arcanine's nose and, while it didn't move or make a sound, tears came out of its eyes. Grimsley threw another punch, harder this time, and felt the strength of the bite loosen up. Then Grimsley felt how the pain became noticeable, different parts of his body started to sting, he was getting cold and tired. Knowing he wouldn't be able to last much longer, Grimsley tried to regain as much strength as he could and focused it all on his right arm and fist, then hit the arcanine right on the jaw and felt the bones of each other connecting, and finally fainted the second pokemon, which fell from his shoulder onto the ground.

The policemen were still at the end of the hallway and Mark was behind him with blood coming out of his open mouth. He, like the other three, was so shocked he couldn't even move, his first instinct was to cheer and clap.

"There's no going back guys, I think it's time for your afternoon nap," Grimsley said as he stood up, drenched in his own blood, "where's the colorful attire, the one I always wear?" He asked, but everyone was too petrified to answer.

He looked directly at Mark and asked him once more, causing him to get out of his lethargic state. Mark sprinted to the first floor and took Grimsley's outfit directly to him in a heartbeat, like his life depended on it; and there was a chance it did. Grimsley took off what was left of his shoes, his bloodied socks, his ripped pants and his underwear, and changed clothes right then and there.

Five minutes later, he came out of the police station alone. There were six different samples of blood on his hands and face, seven including his own, but his red and white and black outfit was impeccable.


	22. Inescapable evil awaits

Bianca was heartbroken, Grimsley had betrayed her. When they walked out of the police station, silent and hopeless, and she remembered her meeting with him, she thought of it only as a bizarre dream. She still wasn't sure if it had actually happened, if Grimsley had become someone else entirely, if he had been lying to her for all of that time. She held firmly onto everything she had learned, everything of which she was absolutely certain, and Bianca then realized that Grimsley had played her. The last time they met, and only that time, he lied to her face. Bianca was sure of it, but she didn't know why he had done it, and this ambiguity greatly tormented her; she had to stop thinking about it.

She implored Cheren to keep the sudden deception secret from Jonny and Helma. He immediately agreed, he could not stand seeing her best friend like that. At that point Cheren hated Grimsley more than ever before, but he also hated himself, because he knew his past actions had hurt Bianca deeply.

Jonny and Helma pressured them to speak, they were justifiably mortified by their confusing silence, but neither Bianca nor Cheren gave up a word, and Jonny and Helma soon realized they'd never find out what happened at the police station. They trusted Bianca wholeheartedly however, and she seemed genuinely heartbroken, so they dropped the issue and focused on comforting her.

Cheren couldn't think ill of them anymore, he now cared for their cause almost as much as them. He learned that it takes effort to stay angry with someone, specially when that person hasn't really done anything to earn that hatred; when two people spend enough time together they unavoidably start caring for one another. Cheren also learned that people who want to preserve their hate intact need to isolate themselves, they need to run away and stay away. Because when you look at people from afar, it is easier to forget that they are human beings.

Cheren now was certain he had to make it up to them, it would be the only way he'd ever forgive himself. Zinzolin was out there, and he wasn't planning anything good; people needed to know. Still, they all knew no one would believe them, no one would take them seriously if they tried to reveal his intentions to the public. No one except perhaps professor Juniper, the only person who saw both Bianca and Cheren mature before her eyes. She was the only suitable recipient for their desperate cry for help.

Cheren called her and told her to come to Opelucid, so he could explain everything to her, and maybe get a little bit of redemption in the process. They waited for her, Cheren at the entrance of the bus station, Bianca, Jonny and Helma from a safe distance, to avoid freaking her out.

Their last hope appeared on the scene. Juniper approached a very distraught Cheren from across the street, noticing the extent of his astonishment at the sight of her as she patted him, quite hard, on the back. Bianca and company got out of their hiding spot and approached the pair cautiously.

"You look pale," Juniper said, "did I surprise you?"

"Just a little bit, I thought you'd arrive from the station," Cheren replied,

"you should stay alert, you never know when the villains are going to attack," she said right before she noticed Bianca, who placed herself firmly right next to Cheren. Bianca decided not to hug Juniper, as she usually would whenever they met, because she sensed an uneasiness coming from her. She understood that, because of all that had happened, and because of the side that Bianca had chosen, they weren't in good terms at the moment.

"Please don't be alarmed professor," Cheren exclaimed, once she sensed Juniper's uneasiness. He raised his open hands and made what he thought was a warm and soothing smile in an attempt to appease the situation, but he looked like a creep, "there has been a rather grave misunderstanding," he continued without losing the smile, "you see, when I talked to you and Sabrina and Colress about the threat that Grimsley represented, I might have enlarged a situation which did not deserve the level of danger with which I described it to you,"

"you bet your ass it didn't," Jonny rattily added, "tell that to all of the cheese I sold, oh wait, you can't, it has already been eaten, oh no! My cheese-selling abilities make me a public menace, of course,"

"right, that's what I'm trying to say," Cheren continued, "you see, it...was obvious that the remnants who were on the ruins weren't keen on continuing a life of crime, but I didn't see it, because I didn't want to see it, however, I am a man who can admit his own fault when it is appropriate…"

"dude..." Jonny quietly exclaimed. Cheren sure talked like a pompous jerk, a sorry pompous jerk,

"...and I was wrong, that's why I called you, to tell you that and to ask for your aid as we set the record straight and fight the real villain, Zinzolin, the true mastermind behind the resurgence of team plasma,"

"your intentions might be good kid, but you shouldn't waste your time helping these thugs with no future," Juniper spoke in a rather cold and tactless manner, "they'll never change what they are, weak, and stupid," she said, to everyone's bemusement, "besides, I'm afraid any attempt to stop Zinzolin will prove futile, he has already won..."

"wait what!? Why are you even saying that?" A startled Bianca echoed what everyone was thinking,

"...you don't know?" Juniper replied, "he captured Sabrina, and is using her abilities to make an army for himself, to take over Unova. A much better army than those weak, worthless idiots from team plasma. Now nothing will stand in his way, and every person who has ever said that he's weak will eat their words along with my fists,"

"what are you talking about lady?" Jonny asked her with a hurtful tone, "that wasn't cool, I'm a person okay,"

"he's right, why are you acting like this?" Bianca seconded him, thoroughly confused,

"how else am I supposed to act, what else am I supposed to say? Me, Zinzolin, talking to you through this woman, and what I've said so far is all true, now everyone can become aware of my power with a simple thought, it is mine, truly mine, and you, YOU!" Juniper said as she pointed at Bianca, "You and your stupid hat which hides your big forehead ineffectively, you! I told you! I freaking told you it wasn't over! I wasn't done!"

"What?" Bianca asked again, now even more confused,

"remember? At Rood's house? I told you that you were nothing, and yet here you are pretending that your words mean something,"

"oh no..." Bianca sorrowfully whispered, "...Zinzolin?"

"What?!" Helma cried out at the same time she swung her cane on the air and struck Juniper on the side of the head, knocking her unconscious, "first you took my friends from me, then you hurt them, then you fooled me into thinking I was meeting the professor! Screw you!" She cried out. She was more than tired of all of the conflict, misunderstandings, and more importantly, the lies. It was one of the main reasons why Helma had chosen to live in a cave away from fake and awful people in the first place. Bianca quickly knelt down and placed Juniper's head on her lap,

"yeah, but it is still her body though," she said as she gently examined the faint mark that Helma's cane left on Juniper's temple.

Alarmed from her actions, Helma covered her mouth with her hand and opened her eyes wide. She knelt right next to Bianca and grabbed the professor's head too, then started apologizing profusely while the professor slowly regained consciousness. Seconds later, Juniper fully opened her eyes and let out a faint moan,

"...what happened?"

"I am so sorry ma'm, I hit you with a cane!"

"...It's okay..."

"really?"

"...No."

Juniper opened her mouth, she grabbed Helma's arm with both of her hands, sinking the tip of her fingers as deep and hard as she could on her skin, then bit into her wrist, hard. Helma screamed, tears appeared from the bottom of her eyes as Juniper growled with Helma's wrist trapped in her mouth. The other three promptly tried to take the professor's teeth off Helma, but Zinzolin wouldn't give up, so Jonny started smacking her on the forehead repeatedly with his palms, to no avail,

"I do not think it's okay to hit women!" He exclaimed as he hit her,

"you hit me all the time!" Helma growled painfully,

"yeah because you hit me a lot, also you hit me much harder and you know it!" Jonny replied as he continued smacking Juniper.

Bianca had an idea, there was no time to ponder on it for so she just pinched Juniper's nose, restricting her access to oxygen. Moments later they heard Juniper trying to suck air through her mouth, without loosening her grip on Helma's wrist, and seemingly failing to breathe. She finally let go of Helma and took a very much needed breath, as not even the most powerful mind control could override the body's inherent configuration for survival. Helma pushed the professor away, leaving her on the ground while she got up,

"what do we do?!" Helma exclaimed,

"run!" Jonny shouted, while Juniper tried to get up.

The group didn't think twice, they ran away as fast as they could without leaving the still convalescing Helma behind. However Juniper quickly got up and started chasing after them. She was in very good shape. She quickly caught up to Helma and violently grabbed her arm, then put her own arm around her neck.

Bianca turned back immediately, she wanted to kick Juniper as far away from Helma as she could, but she still cared about her too much, and she knew Juniper was innocent; maybe she thought of Bianca only as a child to be protected, but Bianca knew she would've listened to her, she would've changed her mind, she loved her like a daughter. Bianca then had another idea, and called her stoutland out. It had turned out to be an extremely effective method to neutralize the relentlessly self-righteous opposition. Stoutland shamelessly walked through Juniper and placed itself right on top of her without harming her, freeing Helma in the process.

Juniper tried to move but the pokemon on top of her did not let her. The guys regrouped next to her and thought about what to do with her. Then she started laughing, letting out jarring and disturbing chuckles as she laid like a mannequin on the ground.

"What did you do to the professor?" Bianca asked,

"why do you care so much," Zinzolin answered through her, "you should care more about what I'll do to you, I have taken over her mind, just like I've taken over the minds of many more,"

"well that stops now!" Bianca cried out,

"no, this is just the beginning, watch."

The group felt a presence looming over them. It felt heavy, debilitating, and it called to them. Their eyes were attracted to the end of the street in front of them. An espeon appeared on the middle of the street, a good distance away from them. Still, they could sense that the psychic pokemon was staring right at them. It was shining bright with a pink glow all around it, like a pink sun. Suddenly stoutland became engulfed in a less brighter version of the same pink glow,

"witness," Juniper said calmly.

Jonny immediately urged Bianca to call her stoutland back. He had seen the effects of the same pink glow twice before, and deduced that the espeon was not only the source of that phenomenon but also the source of Zinzolin's control over Juniper.

"Call him back now!" Jonny shouted,

"I'm serious, this is bad", he pressed again after no one reacted.

Bianca obeyed him as soon as she noticed his urgent tone. The sound of the pokeball closing with her pokemon inside served as a signal to run away once more. The four of them bolted away from the scene as Juniper, and the espeon well behind her, stoically stared at them.


	23. Inescapable evil awaits part 2

They sensed the atmosphere around them change, it forced them to wish with all of their willpower to be anywhere else but there during that moment. It was a daylight horror, the sun was shining brightly right above them, as if it were pointing them as prey to their merciless predator.

As they ran around the streets of Opelucid city, every single person who crossed their path turned to look at them just to give them a mischievous smile and a look filled with iniquity. From a group of adults drinking coffee at a table on a corner, to a woman carrying a child on a stroller, the sense of derogation and hate was inescapable. Each and every one of them, all with the same look on their faces. Cheren looked at the indifferent puppets under Zinzolin's control right in the eyes, even though their wicked stares instinctively told him to look away. He was able to notice a strange glow in their pupils, it was Zinzolin looking straight at him.

"How is he doing this? How is it possible for him to control this many people?" Cheren asked as he ran with the group,

"it's the espeon," Jonny cried out loud,

"how do you know that?"

"I've seen that espeon before, it's Sabrina's, she can communicate with it telepathically, Zinzolin must be exploiting that somehow,"

"how do we stop him?"

"I have no idea, we should focus on running away, maybe if we move far enough from the pokemon the mind control won't be able to reach us,"

"oh yeah, then why isn't he controlling us right now?..."

A couple holding hands let out a big chuckle as the guys ran past them,"because you are worthless to me..." the two of them shouted in unison, prompting the guys to run faster and farther away.

Suddenly the asphyxiating atmosphere of judging eyes disappeared, and the people around stopped looking at them. It seemed they had gotten far enough away from the espeon as they reached the deserted town square. The group took a few seconds to catch their breath.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Bianca recognized a blonde, short boy, as he played with a pokemon on a water fountain nearby. He was wearing a politoed outfit, which only left his face and some of his hair visible, and the pokemon next to him was a politoed. Then she noticed it was actually Popito. Bianca ran over to him as soon as she saw him and her friends followed after her.

"Popito! What in the world are you doing here?" Bianca frantically asked using the little air she had on her lungs,

"I am making sure my master stays hydrated," Popito casually answered,

"why?" Jonny asked, and Popito laughed,

"why? Um, I don't know, because I owe him my life? Because if he isn't hydrated he will die? Because he bailed me out?"

"There's no time to solve this confusing scene, where are the rest of the remnants? We need to get out of here now!" Bianca pressed,

"they are still at the hospital," Popito replied,

"how did you get out?"

"I just told you, my master bailed me out," Popito said as he bowed to the politoed next to him, who responded to his gesture by obliviously licking the back of Popito's head.

"Thank you my master,"

"alright guys, so if Popito and the politoed are fine then that means the mind control is not strong enough to get here, right?" Jonny asked the group,

"how do we know if that's actually how it works?" Cheren challenged him,

"it must be..." Jonny replied, then he stared at nothing, deep in thought for a few seconds, before he turned to Popito, "...Popito, walk down the street right now,"

"okay," Popito immediately complied. He started walking down the street while the oblivious politoed continued gleefully pouring water on itself.

"No! Popito come back! Jonny why did you tell him that?" Bianca cried out,

"I just want to test something, don't worry I'll go save him if Zinzolin tries to control him,"

"what if you get mind-controled too?"

"Then you'll go and save me,"

"that's so dumb!"

"Alright guys I'm walking!" Popito intervened, as he gleefully walked away from the group,

"turn around and then walk backwards so we can see if your face changes!" Jonny said,

"what? Okay, but if this doesn't work you're going to look like a fool," Popito replied before obeying Jonny. He continued walking down the street backwards with a pleased expression on his face, all the way until something on his eyes changed. He stopped walking and put his hands on his temples, as if he had a painful headache. Jonny quickly ran over to him and grabbed him by the arm; that was enough proof; but before Jonny could drag him away, Popito opened his eyes,

"there you are, you worthless idiots, you think you can escape?" Popito said with a different tone on his voice, he seemed more aggressive. Jonny instinctively moved Popito forward a few inches, and saw how he changed back to his regular self,

"see guys, it's some kind of force-field!" Jonny shouted at the guys, "there's only so much space that the espeon can cover."

He then grabbed Popito by the shoulders and pushed him back just a few inches again.

"...Don't play with my power!" Popito quickly exclaimed.

Jonny pulled him back again, "how does it feel?" he asked Popito,

"are you asking me?" Popito answered, "it feels like someone is telling me what to think, and what to do, and then I do it,"

"can you stop it?"

"No, I have to do what the voice says,"

"does it hurt?" Jonny asked him,

"no..." Popito replied.

Jonny pushed him back again as soon as he uttered a word, and started shaking him forward and backwards repeatedly, snapping him in and out of his and Zinzolin's intermittent wrath.

"I think that's enough Jonny!" Bianca shouted, "you proved your point,"

"idiot!" Popito said, "I hope this is helping and you are not just shaking me for no reason..." "...what do you think you are doing?" "Groovy..." "...I'm going to kill you!"

"How many people do you think he can control at once?" Cheren asked,

"hundreds, maybe thousands!" Popito answered, "and all of their pokemon, all across the region..." "...I'm getting dizzy..." "...there's no escape!" "...I will puke on you dude..." "if they won't listen to me..." "...I'm only letting you do this because I want to fit in okay..." "I'll force them to listen, am I weak now?...You can stop skaking me, you do know the espeon can move too right? It's getting closer and closer to you as we speak"

Jonny let go of Popito and grabbed his forehead with a painful expression on his face.

"You know what?" Popito said. His eyes looked different and full of hate, "I changed my mind, I will take over your minds too, just to humiliate you,"

"you won't get away with this Zinzolin!" Bianca replied as she ran over to rescue her friends,

"but you are so wrong!" Popito exclaimed, "cause even after I slaughter you and your little friends there will be plenty of people left to marvel at my power before I slaughter them too."

After his horryfing words, Bianca quickly pulled Popito and Jonny toward her and urged them to run away with her, just as a myriad of angry people appeared on the horizon, with the shining espeon looming behind them. The group ran away from the ensuing crowd and felt the atmosphere behind them change, they could feel as it somehow became heavier on their backs. None of them dared to take a look back.

"Guys, I think we need to separate," Jonny said as he and Bianca reached the water fountain, where the rest of the group waited for them,

"when is it a good idea to separate? I'll tell you when, not right now," Cheren said,

"Cheren, shut your mouth," Jonny angrily replied,

"excuse you, I know you're mad at me, but you shouldn't just dismiss people, I think that what I am saying makes sense,"

"Cheren, there's no time for you to put into action everything that you've learned so far in an honest attempt to redeem yourself and to show that you have changed for the better, someone needs to alert the remnants and the people at the hospital, but we can't lead Zinzolin there, can we? Therefore someone must stay and draw him away from the hospital."

There was a silence that demonstrated how convincing Jonny's argument was.

"We are not sacrificing anyone," Bianca then added,

"Jonny's right," Helma intervened, "and it has to be me, I'm the slowest,"

The group silently pondered Helma's proposition for a second, but everyone, even Jonny, thought that leaving someone injured behind would be a horrible thing to do, so they quickly dismissed the idea.

"I nominate Cheren," Jonny said, and Popito quickly senconded him with an energetic nod,

"why me?" Cheren cried,

"it would be a great way to redeem yourself dude, I would forgive you if you stayed," Jonny said, and he saw how the sweaty Cheren seriously considered his proposal.

Bianca did not care for it, however, "I'll stay with Cheren then," she said, to Helma and Jonny's horror,

"we can't let you do that Bianca, you've already done a lot for us," Helma said, and Jonny nodded, "let Jonny stay instead," Helma then added,

"wait, no, why me?" Jonny cried, "...I mean I'll do it but I don't want to stay with Cheren...I'll forgive him, and we are cool, but that doesn't mean I like him,"

"what do I have to do in order for you to like me?" Cheren replied,

"you don't have to do anything Cheren, I'll stay with you, and that's the end of the discussion," Bianca exclaimed,

"the discussion is never over," Jonny said,

"I'm serious, you have to leave and warn the rest of the remnants about Zinzolin, come on Jonny, please."

Jonny looked to the ground and closed his eyes, then a painful frown appeared on his face. He then opened his eyes and nodded.

"This isn't right," Helma sorrowfully said,

"it's the only choice," Bianca replied, finally convincing Helma, who still hesitated for a moment before reluctantly running away with Jonny, Popito, and Politoed by her side.

"What do we do now?" Bianca asked Cheren once they were left alone, their friends were gone and hopefully safe.

"we walk slower than them," he answered.

The power of the espeon reached them, the two of them could feel it in their minds. It was as if someone were whispering into their ears from the inside of their heads. Bianca and Cheren stopped in the middle of the street, as the crowd full of malice slowly approached them. Still, Bianca tried her hardest to resist the mind control, and it seemed like her efforts were effective, in fact she didn't know if Zinzolin had already started trying to take control of her mind or if that was just some sort of prelude for the real thing.

Or maybe Zinzolin wasn't very strong after all. The voice inside her brain was telling her something she knew wasn't true, something that went against the core of what Bianca was and what she stood for. She was not his puppet, she would never be driven by hate and resentment; she thought of all this with Grimsley's voice, and it nullified Zinzolin's orders, and it repelled them from her mind. Bianca then knew would never do what Zinzolin was telling her to do, she was free.

Cheren wasn't however. She saw him struggling right next to her, with his hands covering his eyes, filled with distress.

"Just ignore it Cheren, you can fight it," Bianca urged her friend,

"I can't," Cheren calmly replied, as Zinzolin's voice creeped through his mind, "I'm not strong enough,"

"yes you are," she rebuffed him,

"just shut your mouth," Cheren said as she put his hand on Bianca's neck, and started pressing,

"I know he's telling you that you are weak and worthless but you aren't!" Bianca said as she grabbed Cheren by the shoulders, "it doesn't matter if people think you are weak, they don't know you like I do, I care about you and I know you are strong, I know you are, isn't that enough?"

Slowly, Cheren took his hand off of Bianca's neck, then he covered his ears. He kept struggling with Zinzolin's orders until he was able to repel his mind control. He opened his eyes and saw his best friend's face, and then Zinzolin was gone. Cheren hugged Bianca and buried his face on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry for everything," Cheren said, "I really am, now run!"

He pushed her away seconds before two middle aged men with weird frowns on their faces grabbed him by the shoulders,

"how on earth are you doing this?!" The two men cried in unison, before a myriad of people approached Cheren and grabbed him however they could,

"I'll show you," they all cried at the same time like a choir, "I'll figure it out, even if I have to open up your head,"

"seriously Bianca, run!" Cheren exclaimed before disappearing behind the multitude.

Bianca closed her eyes and bolted away from the multitude.


	24. If all the shadows disappeared

It became increasingly harder for Bianca to breathe as she ran through the streets of Opelucid city, trying to escape from all the people under Zinzolin's control. But there seemed to be no escape for her, not a single place to hide, they were closing in from all directions. She could feel their presence right next to her, they already had a hold of her, it would be just as painful to continue resisting as it would be to give in to Zinzolin's dominion.

Then she saw them, all around her, walking towards her with their arms forward like zombies,

"why aren't you under my control?!" The multitude shouted angrily. Bianca felt something hitting her on the shoulder. Bianca looked to the sky, above from all the hateful voices. She identified the roof of the pokemon center a few blocks away, but there was no way she would make it there without getting caught, there was nothing else for her to do. She closed her eyes, it was useless, she could still hear them and their empty noise; she received another hit from a rock, this time directly on her right cheek.

"Am I weak now!?" The people cried again. A third rock hit Bianca on the back of the head.

A hand grabbed her by the wrist, "why aren't you under my control yet?" The person holding her said. It was a strong, tall, older man, who had a firm grip on her right wrist.

Another man grabbed her left wrist, and together they easily detained Bianca as more people approached her. She could only watch helplessly as they ganged up on her. Two kids, a boy and a girl, crawled up to her with creepy smiles on their faces, and put their arms and legs around Bianca's ankles, making it impossible for her to move at all. The man on her right used his free hand to grab Bianca's chin, and directed her face to his own.

"You are not special, you are not strong," he joyfully said, as Bianca directed a stare filled with anger at him. It was the only thing she could do, she was hopeless.

Bianca closed her eyes once more, faces assaulted her conscience. Cheren, Helma, Juniper, Jonny, Lucia...Grimsley. She tried to get rid of him, he had lied to her. How could he give up so easily? How could he ignore the truth? He knew the remnants were innocent, he knew they wanted to change. It was something of which he was absolutely certain; no one needed to confirm or support his knowledge, and yet he had lied. Suddenly Bianca wanted to cry. It was so easy for that man to lie. Bianca would never lie, not to anyone, but more importantly, not to herself. She would never let the dehumanizing intolerance and selfishness control her, she would never let them take her.

She struggled with the four people holding her with all of her strength, and tried to forcefully break free from them, but they were much stronger than her, and she was despairingly outnumbered. But she wouldn't give up, and once she sensed that they were planning to move her, she sunk her teeth deep on the arm of the man to her right, who screamed out loud immediately after Bianca's teeth came into violent contact with his skin. The people around her tried to take Bianca away from the man but she didn't let go. The old, bald man kept screaming, he took his hand off of Bianca, but she didn't take her teeth off of him, instead she used her newly free hand to hold onto him as hard as she could.

And Bianca didn't let go from the old man, it didn't matter how hard the other people pulled from her limbs to take her away. Bianca was determined, she grabbed the man from his waist whilst still keeping her teeth sunk into his muscle.

"Ahh! Why are you doing that?!" The old man cried, seemingly free from the mind control,

"you have to help me get out of here!" Bianca shouted at him, right after releasing his arm.

"the hell I will! You are crazy, all of you are crazy!" The old man said as he started making his way out of the crowd, easily pushing people away as they vainly tried to hold him back. Bianca used the opportunity to escape behind him, also pushing the people who tried to cling from her jacket away, albeit in a gentler way than the older man, because she knew those people were innocent.

The crowd suddenly stopped chasing after them. Every person under Zinzolin's control started screaming and raging, each in a different way. Some of the punched the ground, others pulled from their hair, and some other people raised their arms and shouted at the sky,

"COME ON! SUCCUMB TO MY POWER! It is all your fault you witch!" The multitude cried Zinzolin's thoughts,

"what is going on?!" The confused old man asked,

"old, bald idiot! You out of all people won't rebel against my power!" The multitude cried once more,

"he's trying to control your mind!" Bianca intervened, "don't let him, you can fight it," she shouted at the old man as he closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, desperately trying to fend off Zinzolin's wicked mind whispers, while Bianca kept urging him to fight; but her efforts were futile.

Out of nowhere Colress appeared, swift as a ghost and with a ghoulish appearance. Pale and weak. He promptly placed a purrloin on the old man's head, effectively calming him down. Bianca was so startled by his sudden apparition that she had to close her eyes, and once she opened them again, seconds later, she couldn't help but let out a genuine chuckle, amidst all of the fear and frustration she was feeling; it was quite a bizarre sight. She laughed at the purrloin pleasurably resting on top of Colress' head, and at the second purrloin now standing on its two rear limbs on top of the old man's head.

"Quick!" Colress said with a tired and raspy voice, "I only have three purrloin with me so put one on top of your head, it will nullify the mind control!"

"I don't need it, let's just leave now," Bianca replied. Then she grabbed Colress' hand and ran away with him while the crowd was still raging.

The two of them stopped on a corner and hid in the first alley they found, and the second and third purrloin followed them soon after, without the old man,

"oh no, the old man," Bianca said as she picked up one of the purple pokemon and held it on her arms,

"there's no time to lament our losses, Zinzolin has captured Sabrina and is using her power to control the minds of people and pokemon all across the region," Colress said,

"how is he doing that?" Bianca asked,

"well, it seems that Zinzolin is now using a mind control device only on Sabrina, who can use her psychic abilities to control psychic pokemon, and is using said psychic pokemon as a type of satellite to receive and release the mind controlling signals. I must admit it's kind of brilliant, basically, Zinzolin controls Sabrina, Sabrina controls Psychic pokemon, and psychic pokemon control people and other pokemon. Luckily Sabrina's psychic powers have no effect on dark pokemon," Colress said as the purrloin on top of him casually waved its tail,

"good thinking, what do we do now though?"

"I don't know, I have no idea of how to stop him, it seems he is working from the ruins of N's castle, but there's no way we can get there without getting caught by his mooks,"

"you mean regular people and trainers?" Bianca asked rather sassily. It was still hard for her to concentrate with the sight of the purrloin chilling on top of Colress' head,

"yeah, trainers, how is it that you aren't under his control?"

"I guess it just doesn't work on me, I'm not really sure, I do hear his voice inside my head, but I just can't do what he says,"

"Interesting,"

"indeed," Grimsley said, startling Bianca and Colress, both of whom turned their eyes in disbelief at the man in black. Neither of them had noticed him quietly standing next to them, silently eavesdropping on their conversation,

"what are you doing here?" Bianca quickly asked him in a rather cold manner,

"the same thing as you I suppose," Grimsley answered, and Bianca was able to take a good look at him for the first time since she realized he was there. His face was badly bruised, his right eye was fully bloodshot and swollen and his left one was black, and his knuckles were purple,

"what happened to you?" Bianca asked, feeling much more concerned although still trying to feign disinterest,

"I fell,"

"yeah right, did you escape?"

"no, they just let me go, just like that, can you believe it?"

"Of course,"

"I'm sorry, did I miss something?" Colress interjected,

"I don't know, did you? Where were you anyway?" Grimsley asked him back,

"it's a long story,"

"don't worry we have time," Grimsley said sarcastically,

"I hate you," Bianca said, "anyway we can't stay here, now that we've lost Zinzolin and the trainers we should go to the hospital, so we can tell my friends to find dark pokemon, do any of you know where we can find any?"

Grimsley gave Bianca a tired stare, just to nag her...


	25. If all the shadows disappeared part 2

Meanwhile, Jonny and company reached the hospital, only to find the entrance overrun by unfriendly trainers and uninhibited pokemon guarding the place, waiting just for them,

"did you think I forgot about you and team plasma?" One of the trainers said, "you hold a special place in our history, I will use you to prove my omnipotence."

No one approached the guys, instead Zinzolin aimed to take control of them right there. Jonny, Helma, Popito, and Politoed heard him inside their minds, and realized there was nothing they could do to stop him.

"Great suffering awaits you especially, for thinking that you could oppose me," Jonny said, then he slapped Popito on the cheek, producing a perfect slapping sound. Popito returned the vicious slap to Jonny right on his cheekbone, at the same time Helma slapped Politoed on the face face. Then Jonny and Politoed slapped Popito and Helma respectively, and the slapping continued back and forth as the trainers around them mischievously cheered and laughed at them striking each other.

Then, as part of Zinzolin wicked enjoyment, he decided to change things up a bit. He made the guys change partners to slap around, so Popito changed places with Helma and ended up with Politoed, and Jonny ended up with Helma. However, Popito's hand stopped on its way to hit Politoed, right before he contacted with the water pokemon's damp skin, and Politoed hit him right on his cheek, freeing him from the mind control,

"thank you master," Popito cheered, "I would never strike you, and I know that you only hit me to free me from the mind control, right?...Wait!" The politoed kept striking a very much awake Popito rather violently,

"what the hell is wrong with you people? Why are you so stubborn?" Some trainers around them cried,

"guys, I know you are in there," Popito said as Helma and Jonny joined Politoed to gang up on him,

"just remember that you don't want to be doing this," Popito said, as they slapped him around,

"SHUT UP!" The trainers shouted,

"remember that you don't want to be doing what someone like Zinzolin wants you to do." Popito continued trying to convince his friends to stop slapping him around, and he succeeded with Jonny, who was the next one to come back to his senses. He grabbed Helma by the shoulders at the same time she gave him a good smack on the cheek, which made Jonny see nothing but red for a second,

"Helma, I know you don't regret hitting me," Jonny said as soon as he could, "but you don't want to hit me for real dude that was too hard, that's not you." Helma smacked him again, "ah! You are my friend dude stop, you don't want to do this."

Helma's hand touched Jonny's cheek a third time, but instead of feeling pain, this time Jonny felt as Helma gently caressed his skin, at the same time he felt the blood vessels on his cheek pulsate. Jonny looked at Helma's eyes and realized that she was back to her real self,

"I'm sorry Jonny, you are right...your cheeks are very red," Helma said,

"ha, I knew you secretly liked me, I was right, I'm pretty sure Lucia likes me too, plus Bianca sacrificed herself just for me, and now you, it will be hard to choose the winner,"

"are you for real dude? Excuse me for trying to be helpful", Helma said genuinely upset. She swiftly took her hand off of his now completely red face,

"guys, stop being corny please," Popito intervened, "we are still very much in trouble...Politoed, I know you are in there, ah!" He said to politoed, which kept smacking him throughout.

But it was too late. Every nearby trainer and their pokemon had made sure they couldn't run away. All of them under Zinzolin's control except for one pokemon, a skuntank, which Jonny quickly noticed.

"Stunky! I can't believe you are here, you have to leave now!" Jonny shouted. As soon as he saw his former pokemon he deduced it wasn't under Zinzolin's control,

"are you insane? Tell him to help us!" Popito pressed. His cheeks were so distinctively swollen it looked as if he was wearing make up,

"SHUT UP!" All of the trainers cried, "...so you know this pokemon?"

All eyes turned to the dark pokemon with purple fur. They rounded it up, then the group closest to them, which included its own mind-controlled trainer, started viciously kicking skuntank wherever they could strike, its jaw, stomach, legs, and loin, well until skuntank was thrown right in front of Jonny, who quickly knelt down to tend to his former pokemon, heartbroken.

"now watch!" The trainers cried, "you are about to experience my power first hand in a way that will only make you praise me for it, with your last breaths, right until the moment you cease to exist!"

Some of them cracked their knuckles before they all started approaching the group. The guys held each other tightly right next to Jonny and skuntank. Helma closed her eyes as she held onto Jonny and Popito, with her arms reaching as much of their bodies as she could, and waited for them to finally strike.

But they never did. She opened her eyes and saw all of them running away, Zinzolin's influence wasn't palpable anymore. They were scared, wide awake, and yet at the same time just as heedless as they were under Zinzolin's control.

All of the trainers and their pokemon quickly disappeared from the scene, leaving the guys alone and confused with Skuntank laying injured below them. And just when the last of them was gone they discovered the source of their salvation. Purrloin. Myriads of them, could be hundreds, quickly surrounded them just like the trainers moments before, but this time neither Jonny nor Helma were scared. Then lot more dark pokemon appeared, could've been all of the existent species for all they knew, at least of any kind that could walk on land, followed closely by Grimsley, Bianca, and Colress, who rushed over to meet them.

"Grimsley! I thought you were in jail!" Helma exclaimed loudly,

"I was, but they allowed me to leave early for good behavior," Grimsley replied

"really?!"

"yes."

Bianca rolled her eyes, "how can you just lie all the time?" She asked Grimsley, with anger visible in her eyes, "why is it so easy for you?"

"It was just a joke," he said earnestly. All the pretense was lost, Bianca and Grimsley became entrapped in their own unbridled conversation, alienating everyone else around,

"oh, you like jokes, you're always joking around?"

"Not all the time,"

"most of the time though, right? Any situation can be used for comedy, it doesn't matter if a few people get angry or feel betrayed, if I get offended it's just because I don't get it, it's fine if it's in the name of comedy, I get it,"

"perhaps sometimes people need to keep some truths hidden, not in the name of comedy, but because they want to protect someone,"

"screw you! Now you want to protect me?"

"I already did,"

"well thank you, how chivalrous of you," Bianca said, then she turned to the disingenuously uncomfortable crowd, partially breaking the tense atmosphere, with the intention to get back to the dangerous matter at hand, "Zinzolin's mind control doesn't work on dark pokemon, so we should always stay around them," she then said,

"too bad I don't have any of my own," Helma lamented,

"not yet," Grimsley said, "but today is your lucky day." He pulled out a pokeball and called out a pangoro from it, "you may not believe me, but I've been saving him specifically for you ever since you came in to my room to inform me that Zinzolin was creeping on us,"

"what do you mean?"

"I mean he's yours Helma," Grimsley replied.

Helma looked at pangoro while it in turn looked at her stoically,

"I don't deserve it, I don't really know how to train pokemon, I've never had a real pokemon battle, besides he looks really powerful and I don't have any badges,"

"that's not a problem," Grimsley promptly replied. Then he stuck his hand inside his jacket and pulled out several badges from the different gyms in unova, ranging from Striation City to Opelucid city itself, more than two of each. He handed Helma eight different ones, as well as pangoro's pokeball.

"I don't deserve them," Helma quickly rebuffed Grimsley, and sorrowfully returned everything to him,

"why not? Just take them,"

"because I didn't earn them, you have to work really hard to get them and I don't deserve to have them."

Grimsley knelt in front of Helma and put his hands on her shoulders, things got real,

"close your eyes, I mean it do it now." she obeyed him and he continued, "forget that everyone is here, it's just you and me and no one else, forget everything you've seen and everything people have said to you and just think of yourself, of everything you have done to get right where you are now, think of everything that you have given, only you know how hard it has been, nobody else knows just you, now open your eyes and take the badges, which are yours...you know it."

Helma opened her eyes, which were a bit watery, with a frown on her face, she took everything back, and held her new possessions in her hands.

Suddenly a lot of people came out of the hospital, including all of the remnants wearing gray pants and shirts. Everyone was quick to go meet with Grimsley and Bianca, and the guards did not try to stop them in anyway, mostly out of sheer confusion.

"Zinzolin tried to take control of us again, don't know how," Lucia said as she walked over to them, seemingly bored,

"we know," Jonny said, "I bet you are glad I'm okay, aren't you?"

"I guess, I am glad you are all okay," Lucia replied, "what now though?"

"now we have to stop Zinzolin, unfortunately," Grimsley said as he stood up, "or rather, you have to stop him, he's in the ruins,"

"what do you mean we?" Bianca answered, she became wary of Grimsley momentarily,

"this is a crucial moment, Zinzolin will come back here I'm afraid, someone has to stay and distract him while you head to the ruins using the purrloin to move under his radar, and finally put an end to him,"

"I'll stay too," Colress added,

"me too," Popito also added,

"no, you'll go to the ruins with the rest of the remnants," Grimsley rebuffed him,

"okay cool,"

"but you have to go right now, before he notices you are after him,"

"I'm more than happy to go there and stop Zinzolin," Quincey spoke for the released remnants, "and I'm sure all of us wish to do the same, if the guards let us go,"

"you seem to know what you are doing," one of the guards said, "please carry on...do you want all of your casino worker clothes back?"

"hell yes," Jonny added,

"are you ready Bianca?" Grimsley asked her directly,

"of course I am, I need to rescue my friend Cheren," she replied,

"again?"

"Yes."

"What about you Lucia?" Jonny asked,

"I don't have any pokemon so I don't even know what I could do to help,"

"you can have my three houndoom," Grimsley quickly said, "they like you, and I think you can make good use of them and care for them well,"

"okay sweet," Lucia immediately answered, "yeah I'll do it, there's no way I'm letting that bastard take control of my mind again."

One by one the remnants went back into the hospital one last time. They changed back into the clothes that Grimsley first provided for them. Then, after a purrloin climbed on top of each of their heads, they left for battle, free and resolute, ready to put an end to their nightmare…


	26. Freedom part 1

Sabrina's arrival was imminent, Grimsley and Colress both knew it. They knew what she was capable of doing with her powers. They knew just how evil Zinzolin truly was, and what he would do to them if they gave him the chance; he would not stop until their bodies were unrecognizable, and he would take his time.

They were standing firm at the entrance of the hospital ready to fight for the remnants, all of whom, at one point or another, had been under the command of one of them. Both Grimsley and Colress were afraid, but they were resolute. They had spent a long time running away from their past, and now their past was basically running over to them, to finish them. At some point they realized that it would be just as painful to keep running and hiding from it as it would be to face it, and, if they were to continue running, they'd never stop. At least if they decided to face it there would be an outcome, either positive or negative, but an outcome nonetheless.

"You know what?" Colress said, "over the past few days I had to endure some pretty heavy stuff, no one was there to see it, no one will ever know...I have to admit that a part of me had always wanted people to recognize my genius, and that partially moved me during my research, but now I know, if I respect my own efforts to survive, no other recognition matters,"

"It's a good thing you learned that right now cause you're probably about to die,"

"I know,"

"you do have my respect however,"

"and you have mine..."

The guards had left them. They had sheltered themselves, along with everyone else inside, on the most secluded wing of the hospital at the far back, leaving the two men standing outside of the hospital, only aided by Grimsley's numerous pokemon, to fend off the attack. Many dark pokemon stood by either side of them, a group of mightyena, a group of absol, a pair of tyrannitar, a lone hydreigon, a crawdaunt, as well as a few purrloin, all ready to fight. The absol suddenly grunted, all at the same time in an ominous manner, with a dangerous look on their eyes. They turned to the mightyena which in turn started howling loudly, as drops of sweats rolled from Colress' forehead.

The ground beneath them started trembling, and from the horizon loud growls and cries could be heard forthcoming. The two men and the pokemon could sense Zinzolin's hate in the air, a hate that he forced upon his army of mind-controlled trainers and their pokemon. Finally, the heavenly radiance emitted by the psychic pokemon, the emissaries of Zinzolin's message, appeared before their eyes, and their opponents arrived soon after.

A myriad of them, way more than Grimsley's pokemon, there was no need to count. Regular trainers dressed in flashy cool clothes, still carrying their backpacks, with their competitive pokemon by their side. Mainly charizard and dragonite as well as a few garchomp, lopunny and kingdra, all of them commanded by Sabrina, who approached the hospital standing on top of her luminous metagross. She was wearing a modified version of the mind-controlling red mask, with three antennas at the top of it resembling long, insect like horns.

Sabrina made her pokemon stop a good distance away from the two brave men, who didn't back away one inch, and all of the trainers stayed behind her. They could see each other clearly, it was useless to run away. Sabrina moved her hand toward Grimsley and quickly pulled it toward her, but Grimsley didn't move, instead he gave Sabrina a wicked smile. He knew her psychic powers wouldn't work on him. His stare was so affecting that Sabrina, commanded by Zinzolin, had to look away.

His insolence was infuriating, there was nothing he could do against Zinzolin and yet Grimsley chose to mock him, he had to be annihilated. Sabrina then moved her hand toward Colress and tried to pull him toward her but, before she could do it, a group of purrloin climbed on him and nullified her efforts.

On his secret lair, away from the battlefield, Zinzolin raged and cursed until his throat hurt. Even after he had obtained all of that power there were people he couldn't control. Because of this Sabrina, and everyone around her, raged too. They growled and shouted filled with Zinzolin's rage. They were ready to kill.

Sabrina opted to take only Colress' glasses from his face, and transported them all the way to her right hand, with which she quickly crushed them, cutting her hand in many places and instantly producing blood for which Sabrina didn't care at all.

She opened her bloodied hand and released the shards of Colress' glasses on the ground, then shouted with fury, ordering her metagross to attack. And like clockwork her pokemon charged at Grimsley, with everyone following behind her like mindless warriors thirsty for blood. Sabrina teared up the piece of ground right in front of Grimsley and lifted it to the sky, she couldn't affect him directly but she could still kill him with her powers, so she dropped the big boulder on top of him, giving Grimsley mere seconds to push Colress away from him before jumping out of the way himself.

And the hopeless battle started. The charizard wasted no time to breathe out powerful fire blasts at their enemies, filling the improvised battlefield with flames that hurt the dark pokemon deeply. The dragonite's enormous paws shone with a green burst, they hit the absol with outrages before the tyrannitar stepped in. The powerful green beasts teared up pieces of the ground and threw them at the dragonite's heads.

Meanwhile, outside victory road, the remnants assembled and hid behind every bush and tree they could find, while the numerous purrloins rested pleasurably and tightly on top of their heads. The remnants and their few pokemon knew better than to make a sound or move an inch more than was strictly necessary, as any simple noise, no matter how low or insignificant, would alert the many trainers and their overpowered pokemon guarding the only entrance to the cave,

"there are more people here than anywhere else," Lucia silently lamented, as she and Bianca slowly crouched down behind some bushes, "of course they are all here, he's a coward, it will be impossible to get in,"

"I have a plan, just leave it to me," Helma said as she got next to them,

"what are you gonna do, distract them?" Bianca asked, "we've tried that a few times before and it hasn't quite worked out for us,"

"I must do this, just wait until I am inside, then get in and follow my lead."

Helma didn't wait for anyone to answer her and called both of her pokemon out. She carefully grabbed her small cranidos and placed it on pangoro's left shoulder with the help of pangoro itself, as it was much taller than both of them. Then she took out a small pencil case containing her newly acquired eight badges, and showed them to pangoro before hopping on his right shoulder herself with the help of her cane.

Then, Helma ordered Pangoro to walk through the trees and bushes, leaving behind the rest of the remnants, the purrloins, a few of their scraggy and vullaby, their only pokemon, while they could only marvel at her bravery. She came out of hiding and walked over to the entrance, and stopped right in front of the mind-controlled trainers with hateful frowns on their faces,

"get the hell out of my house!" Helma cried before she ordered pangoro to attack. The many mooks ganged up on them and Pangoro quickly responded by throwing punches left and right; ice punches for a dragonite's jaw and garchomp's stomach, thunder punches for charizard's throat and kingdra's face, and drain punches for excadrill's nose and greninja's chest, which not only took them down with one hit each but also revitalized Pangoro after withstanding all of the hateful attacks that the dragons threw at it; water, fire, dirt, punches and teeth only angered Helma, Pangoro, and Cranidos more as they rampaged through the multitude, and punished them for what they did to her friends back at the giant chasm. Helma and cranidos helped their holder by dishing out hits of their own and deflecting attacks directed at pangoro, they made their way into the cave like an enraged three headed beast, punches flew out for all directions, Helma used her cane and cranidos used its head, they were unstoppable.

Back at the hospital, two arcanine suddenly appeared and went directly for Grimsley, who recognized them as the same ones he fought and defeated at the police station days before, as one of them still sported a visible injury under its jaw. They swiftly ran toward him with fatal intent but an absol intercepted one of them with a sucker punch, then crawdaunt appeared glowing blue and smacked it right on the jaw, knocking it down. The second arcanine moved for the two pokemon but crawdaunt stood in its way and smacked hammered down the arcanine's nose with its claw before absol finished it, slashing the arcanine with its paws covered in darkness. Sabrina's metagross intervened in the fight and mashed absol to the ground, then threw it far and away, before being struck directly by crawdaunt's claw. Sabrina didn't move after the water attack, she instead smiled at his attempt, closed her eyes, and metagross responded to her gesture by stomping his front limbs hard on the ground, producing an earthquake, then followed that attack by mashing crawdaunt out of the way.

Sabrina set her eyes on Grimsley, who shouted at Colress to move out of the way before running inside of the empty hospital, and Sabrina alone charged after him, destroying the edges of the doors so that metagross could pass in the process.

Grimsley quickly found a staircase and went up as Sabrina grew closer. He arrived at the second floor and started running through an empty, darkened hallway which seemed pretty narrow for his pursuers. Tragically, neither Sabrina nor metagross backed down, and the steel pokemon plowed through the walls of the hallway without minding the structure in the least. Grimsley could only sprint faster to try and avoid the wave of destruction that made its way to him. During his attempt to escape, he noticed a more narrow set of stairs ahead of him and decided that it was his best chance to escape, as the metagross wouldn't be able to fit there, but metagross didn't care. Once Grimsley started going up the stairs as fast as he could, metagross followed him, destroying anything it found on its way, climbing up however it could, even using the walls as if it were an ariados; its limbs stuck uncannily to the walls the same way Sabrina stuck to her pokemon.

But as Grimsley kept going up floor after floor it seemed like all he had to do was keep going, as the metagross would inevitably destroy the staircase and fall deep down from its own weight. However, soon after, the sound of a window breaking was heard, and this made the sounds of the one sided battle outside more evident. More specifically, the sounds of the dark pokemon running away from the trainers; there were just too many. A dragonite entered the staircase from above, it was obvious it was the one which broke the window. It proceeded to set the whole place on fire, with flames that it breathed out of its mouth even better than a fire pokemon. Suddenly Grimsley felt like he was burning.

That was it. The dragon above him stopped its attack because it knew the flames would finish the job in a more effective way, and below him Sabrina and metagross slowly approached Grimsley as he stood on the corner of the staircase, between the third and fourth floor. The metagross started mashing the walls around it, weakening the foundations of the whole structure with every hit. Suddenly the floor right below Grimsley crumbled whole and he had to jump to reach the edge of the stairs right above him with the mere tip of his fingers.

Right then Zinzolin knew it was all over for his victim. He paused to take a deep breath and to savor the moment. He moved his tongue inside his mouth and swallowed abundant saliva, it was as if he could taste the victory that he had waited to achieve for so long. Grimsley's fingers suddenly slipped as he was trying very hard to hold onto the stairs above him, and he fell all the way to the ground.


	27. Freedom part 2

Meanwhile on victory road, the enraged trainers and their pokemon followed Helma into the cave, and this gave the remnants an opportunity to sneak inside. One by one they ran into Zinzolin's lair with a purrloin hanging on top of each of their heads. Inside, Helma and her pokemon maneuvered flawlessly through the many shadows created by the cave itself, moving through the darkness, punching anything they could, and hiding in corners before repeating the process. The trainers looked for her and also took notice of the remnants, who didn't waste time to hide in the shadows and use them for their advantage, following Helma's example. Out of nowhere a punch flew at a charizard and knocked it out, causing the ground to tremble, filling the remnants with hope at the same time.

The trainers wasted no time to throw their most powerful attacks at the source of the punch, the shadows on the walls, but nothing was there. Then another punch stroke furtively an excadrill and some purple paws appeared out of nowhere and teared into its metallic skin until it fainted, and then hid again, it was obvious who had the advantage.

Attacks kept coming out of the shadows and little by little they weakened the opposition, while the trainers frantically ordered their pokemon to strike every wall as if they were blind, sometimes even hitting one another, but also quickly fainting purrloins left and right whenever their attacks managed to hit them; there were just too many trainers and the remnants wouldn't be able to resist for long.

Zinzolin heard Grimsley's body hit the ground, but he couldn't enjoy it as much as he wanted to; it happened too fast. He'd have to find someone else to acknowledge his power before Zinzolin killed them too, just to achieve some sort of closure. Luckily for him there were a few stubborn people around. Sabrina and metagross climbed down from the destruction using the walls as the floor. They moved slowly through the now ruined hallway, and went back to the big and spacious main entrance of the equally big hospital, where a group of trainers had Colress pinned to the ground, per Zinzolin's mental orders. He would take all of the time in the world to savor that moment.

On his secret lair, Zinzolin raged again, but this time it was a joyous rage. He had tested Sabrina's power and what he had found was much more than what he thought he wanted, the possibilities seemed endless. Sabrina, on top of metagross, walked to the middle of the room and started channeling her power on herself. She shone brightly with a pink radiance all around her, and started floating upwards with her arms wide open and her eyes consumed with the same pink radiance as the rest of her and her pokemon. Zinzolin felt the grip he had on everyone's mind grow in power, everyone's eyes became consumed too, and they all let out boastful growls full of fury, with a sense of happiness. They had won, nothing else mattered.

Meanwhile on victory road, Lucia struggled to run away from the many pokemon trying to attack her. She knew the remnants wouldn't be able to hide in the shadows forever, there were just too many trainers, all of them much more powerful than them. Lucia sensed a different kind of danger, she looked around for her pokemon and was able to see one of her three houndoom, which happened to be the most weakened one, about to be on the receiving end of a devastating hydropump, courtesy of a malicious kingdra. Lucia immediately sprinted toward it, quickly put her arms around its belly and carried it away, avoiding the attack altogether.

The kingdra was unfazed by this, it ignored them and proceeded to shoot another cannon made of water, this time directed at a pack of purrloin protecting a remnant, fainting them all at the same time. It wouldn't be long before they were defeated, so Lucia chose to sneak out of the battlefield and find Zinzolin herself, to confront him on her own and finally put an end to their torment. She ran through the caves with her houndoom right behind her, and arrived at the ruins of N's castle.

She knew that Zinzolin, like the ritualistic dunce that he was, would be operating from the almost completely destroyed and much vandalized throne room. However, as soon as she turned a corner to reach the longest hallway on the ruins, a pack of trainers arrived from the other side to meet her and block her way.

"End of the road beautiful," the tallest one right in the middle of the group said arrogantly,

"is that what your mom tells you at night when she tucks you in to bed?" Lucia facetiously answered, and the houndoom behind her growled with her mouths closed, as if they were laughing at her remark, although Lucia was much more scared than she would ever let show.

"...You know," the tall trainer said, after letting the moment run, "I was actually sad when I had to blow up that mask on your face, I was afraid it would ruin your pretty doll face but, I must say, you still look alright, all things considered,"

"yeah, I bet you wished you looked just like me, I know I would if I were you,"

"SHUT UP!" The tall trainer shouted angrily before letting out an even angrier growl,

"no, never," Lucia scantily answered,

"Doesn't matter! Just go back and accept your defeat, cause there's no way you are going through here, I'm too much for you,"

"the trainers might be, but you are nothing."

Lucia's comebacks enraged Zinzolin even more, the trainers growled and raged before they went over and grabbed her from her wrists and shoulders, to which her houndoom responded by showing their fangs in a hateful way,

"wait!" Lucia pressed her pokemon, although Zinzolin took it as a plea to let her go,

"no way doll, this was fun while it lasted, but it's over...you should be glad you know, you'll help me polish my methods, this is just starting for me...okay let's see what makes you suffer the most," the trainer said before he and the rest of them pulled their pokeballs out and called their perfectly bred competitive pokemon, kanghaskan, machamp, garchomp and clefable.

"yeah let's..." Lucia said desicively, "houndoom! Don't mind them, breathe all of the fire you have at the ceiling!" She shouted, and her houndoom looked at her ready to attack, but unsure of following her trainer's exact order,

"trust me! Do it now," Lucia pressed them, while the pokemon of the enemy rushed to finish them. The houndoom jumped away and into the shadows around them while Lucia tried to break free from the trainers, unsuccessfully. Just then, three lines made out of flames shot upwards, and didn't stop until the entirety of the ceiling was filled with fire. Both Lucia, the trainers, and their pokemon focused their attention above them; the room heated up considerably. They could feel the fire burning on their scalps and shoulders and eyebrows,

"have you ever felt a fire like this so close to your faces?...I have," Lucia said as she pushed the tall trainer away from her and unto the ground, "what would you do if it happened to you?"

She pushed the rest of the trainers away, and they used their now free limbs to get on their knees and cover their heads with their hands, before calling back all of their pokemon. Lucia looked into their eyes and deduced that they had broken free from the mind control, just from how afraid they seemed,

"so this is what it takes for you to break free, fear? Zinzolin is telling you to kill me but you are so afraid you just can't do what he says," she said. The trainers crouched down and tried to crawl away but she grabbed two of them from their backpacks and stopped them before they could,

"you aren't strong to endure the heat," she said to them as they tried to run away like scared little lilipups trying to get out of hell. One of them turned to look at her. Lucia saw the fear of a kid in his eyes, and promptly let both of them go, desperate and scared. Just then she walked away, leaving the flames behind her, and her houndoom came out right after her, as if they were being born from the fire, which instead of hurting seemed to please them.

"Find Zinzolin, he must be close," Lucia said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead, but some of it stayed, and she continued sweating throughout. She felt her scalp itch from the burns too, as she started walking around the cave filled with rage, desperately looking for Zinzolin. She made her hands into fists and clenched them hard, being driven by pure anger which her houndoom noticed well, feeding their own anger and desire to hunt the villain from their new trainer. But it didn't matter how angry they were, nor how eager they were to find him, Zinzolin didn't seem to be anywhere, it was like he didn't exist.

Bianca crawled her way out of the battlefield too. Five of her pokemon, including musharna, stoutland and chandelure were all fainted. Her well being and safety were on the line as Bianca roamed silently around the ruins looking for Cheren, with just one of her pokemon left and a couple of purrloin walking behind her. She looked int the bedrooms and in Grimsley's room but all of them were intact and no one was there; it seemed like Zinzolin wasn't aware of those places. She then went up the stairs to reach the lounge and turned the red doorknob to open the door, and right then she heard noises inside, some kind of machinery.

Most of the lamps on the ceiling were broken so it was harder to see inside, but maybe that was a good thing since the place was all dirty and damaged; it was really a shame. She then saw Cheren surrounded by machines, sleeping on a chair with a strip on his head connected to one of the machines through some cables, while three white haired men looked at another machine,

"this doesn't say anything about how the idiot is resisting the mind control, that's the last thing I'll try," one of the men said,

"I guess we'll have to open his head after all," another one said.

Bianca promptly ran to Cheren and stood in front of him with her arms open, while the three men stood stoically and watched her with tired expressions on their faces,

"don't you dare touch him!" she shouted, and they answered her one after the other,

"We, the Shadow Triad, have always been and will always be the loyal servants of Ghetsis. And Ghetsis' ambitions will never cease! "

"Ghetsis' ambitions live on through Zinzolin,"

"it is useless to fight."

They didn't move at all, and they didn't have any reason to do so as their pokemon were already out of their pokeballs, and were more than ready to fight. Three bisharp appeared from behind them, they moved menacingly closer to Bianca until they cornered her, and yet she stood in front of Cheren and even smiled before taking out a pokeball, then called out her mienshao.

The purple, slender pokemon came out and clapped its front paws together, then stood on one of its rear limbs to prepare to fight, right when a purrloin appeared and hopped on its head, just as ready to fight as mienshao itself. The bisharp wasted no time and headed to hack some blood out of the purple pair, but they moved faster than any of them, gracefully jumping high on the air and then striking one of the bisharp with a powerful kick, sending it flying far away and knocking it down, while purrloin maneuvered masterfully to stay on top of mienshao. The two other bisharp swung the blades on their hands trying to chop Bianca's full fighting type to pieces but it avoided all of their attacks before jumping once more and sending another bisharp flying away to sleep. Then mienshao swung its paw at full speed, hitting the third bisharp on its head, and avoided another attack from the bisharp's blade before striking it down with another kick.

The shadow triad were unfazed, one of them produced another pokeball and called out a banette,

"use phantom force," he said to the ghost, and the puppet pokemon promptly vanished. Both mienshao and Bianca looked all around for the imminent attack but banette was nowhere to be found. Suddenly it appeared behind mienshao like the ghost of a giant beast rising from the grave, and sent Bianca's pokemon flying back to her, deeply hurt by the attack. Bianca knelt down, grabbed her mienshao with one hand and Cheren with the other, while the shadow triad approached her with banette in front of them.

"You fool," one of them said, "I told you it was useless to fight."

The men focused on her and banette focused on the weakened mienshao. A shadow triad member grabbed Bianca by the neck and lifted her,

"did you think you could beat us, what possessed you to think you were strong enough for us?"

"I know I'm strong," Bianca fiercely grunted at him,

"and yet here you are, defeated and defenseless, how can you tell me that you are strong?"

"I don't need to prove anything to you, in fact I don't want to, look at what you are doing, who you are working for, I don't care for you,"

"die now."

He started squeezing Bianca's neck while the banette prepared to finish mienshao, but skuntank appeared and sucker punched it before it could attack, and Jonny appeared behind it to help Bianca push the man off of her. Banette tried to hit skuntank with another phantom force but the attack went through the dark type like nothing was there, and another hit from skuntank was enough to take the ghost down.

Bianca tried to punch the shadow triad member but he quickly evaded her attack and mocked her with a grunt, to which she responded by grabbing him by the collar. She winded up, and released the hardest headbutt she had ever thrown, hitting the dude's face with her forehead, knocking him down cold. Jonny tried to do the same with another shadow triad member but he quickly overpowered Jonny and put him in a headlock, seeing as his fallen comrad failed to take Bianca seriously. However, skuntank tackled him as soon as it saw his former trainer struggling, and with the help of Jonny they immobilized their opponent. Mienshao got up and regrouped with Bianca and Jonny, and the four of them looked at the remaining shadow triad member, whose only option was to raise his hands and surrender.

Bianca held Cheren on her arms and took the strip off his forehead, then started shaking him gently,

"please tell me that you are alright, you are my dearest friend."

Cheren slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at Bianca for a few seconds. Such a sight had to be a dream, he already felt like he was dreaming, and then she was there, with a look on her eyes that made Cheren absolutely certain that every word which ever came out of her mouth was true. He took a look around and ascertained as well as he could that it wasn't a dream, then he turned to her again,

"...you saved me after all..."

"yes, and Jonny's here too, he helped me,"

"I'm glad, you are my dearest friend too...out of everyone in the world I'm glad you are the one that cares for me, now if you don't mind, I think I'll go back to sleep for a while,"

"of course, please get some rest,"

"thank you..."


	28. Freedom part 3

Meanwhile, on the debris from the staircase at the hospital, a severely battered and barely awake Grimsley opened his eyes. He tried to move his hand and sensed pain. Then, with difficulty, he took out a dusty pokeball from his pocket. He tried cleaning it with his sleeve but only managed to make it dirtier, then he called out his honchkrow. The dark feathered pokemon came out and took a look at his wounded trainer, its eyes changed, it was immediately horrified. Honchkrow let down its beak and touched Grimsley's shoulder, Grimsley let out a laugh subdued by pain and stroked its feathers, then grabbed honchkrow's head and used it to get up and climb on its back. Honchkrow knew what Grimsley wanted it to do, but it still hesitated,

"let's go," Grimsley said as he patted honchkrow's head, and the pokemon flew away, swiftly crossing through the destruction, while Grimsley, in his poor state, tried as hard as he could to hang on to it. They arrived at the entrance to find Sabrina floating right in the middle of the giant room, shrouded in all of her power.

Honchkrow flew as fast as it could toward her with Grimsley still struggling to hold on to it. Zinzolin identified them and immediately ordered his soldiers to strike them down. Attacks from all directions, water, ice, and flames were thrown at them until one flamethrower hit honchkrow in the head, and an ice beam finally took it down. Grimsley channeled all of his remaining strength to jump out, he managed to reach Sabrina's legs and put his arms around her knees however he could; his life depended on it.

Sabrina waved her hand, directing an attack at him, but the psychic waves didn't affect him. Grimsley was infused with darkness, he was basically a dark type himself, so Sabrina resorted to punching the living hell out of him. She stayed floating as she threw fists full of Zinzolin's rage right on Grimsley's face. One after the other she pummeled Grimsley and disfigured him.

"You want to take her mask off, free her from my power!" Zinzolin said through Sabrina,

"I won't take it off, she will," Grimsley shouted,

"the hell she will," Sabrina said as she continued hurting him,

"you aren't immortal, you can't resist forever!" Zinzolin shouted,

"I never said I was immortal," Grimsley said. His voice weakened as his face received more and more attacks but the grip he had on Sabrina's knees didn't falter one bit,

"fall down! Fall down! FALL DOWN YOU IDIOT! Who do you think you are?" Sabrina continued shouting, but Grimsley could sense that Zinzolin was cracking down,

"PLEASE! Fall down you idiot! Who are you!?" Zinzolin cried covered in sweat, which was mixed with the tears rolling down his eyes,

"you are nothing special! You are just a man," Zinzolin cried out,

"exactly..." Grimsley said triumphantly as Sabrina stopped her fist covered on Grimsley's blood just a few inches away from him. She looked right at him and the pink glare in her eyes disappeared, it was Sabrina, the saffron gym leader from Kanto who was looking right at the person below her with eyes filled with sorrow and repentance, which then turned at her bloodied hand; she was disgusted by it. She kept looking at her hand until it reached the top of her head and grabbed the mask, then took it off, and the pink glow disappeared entirely, and Grimsley gave out and fell off of her.

Luckily Sabrina reacted quickly and managed to grab Grimsley by the arm. She slowly came down with him and let him safely on the ground, then grabbed the mask with both of her hands and used them to crush it until it broke down in pieces on the ground.

Meanwhile on the ruins, Zinzonlin kept screaming as loud as he could, hoping that his messages of hate would still reach Sabrina, which wouldn't happen. However, his screams managed to reach Lucia's ears as she was desperately looking for him around the ruins.

That was enough for her to finally find him, on a small ditch covered by some rocks, which hid the light that came out of the numerous espeon hiding there with him. Seven of the four legged psychic pokemon, all of them with their eyes closed, were gathered in a circle around Zinzolin, as the apparent source of his mind-controlling powers. None of them moved as Lucia walked in with her three houndoom behind her, the four of them with hate visible in their stares. It wouldn't have mattered if the espeon had moved and attacked them on the spot, Lucia's resolute sight was set on Zinzolin and only Zinzolin. She saw him, covered all in black except for his head. Both his hair and his face were wet, and he had a gray mask covering his mouth, with the edges leading all the way to his temples on both sides.

He extended his hand at Lucia to try and control her, Lucia stopped walking at him and waited, but felt nothing,

"do you remember why you joined team plasma in the first place?" Zinzolin suddenly asked her with a tired tone, "I was there remember, you wanted to get revenge on a trainer who would humiliate you and defeat all of your pokemon whenever he saw you,"

"shut up," Lucia calmly said,

"you came to me for protection, I know you, as the little girl who came to us crying because trainers were mean to her,"

"yeah?"

"yeah, you have nothing to do here."

The light surrounding the espeon suddenly vanished, they opened their eyes and looked at the two people sweating profusely. Then, one by one the seven espeon got out of the ditch and slowly walked away without minding Zinzolin in the least.

"Wait!" Zinzolin cried out loud, "who told you you could leave?! Come back here!" He knelt down and raised his open hands at them, "don't leave me please! Please come back, I beg you."

Lucia couldn't look at him, she lamented that he looked so pathetic and pitiful; all of the sudden she couldn't enjoy his breakdown. So she looked at the espeon and waited until they were out of sight, just then she turned back at the man laying on the floor, who now looked just like what he really was, a coward, sad, alone, desperate, and more than anything, afraid.

One of the houndoom behind her growled and showed its fangs. This was enough for Zinzolin to get up and run away scared, but he was too slow and too tired to actually have a chance to escape, and the houndoom didn't have to wait for any of Lucia's orders as they knew well what they had to do. The three of them quickly ran after the sad and tired man, tackled him to the ground, and ripped the black robes off him, revealing his body. He had a lot of cables tangled all around his torso which led to a rectangular box on his back, which in turn led to the mask on his mouth.

The houndoom started chewing all of his machinery up while Lucia approached and tried to take the box off his back, managing to take its top off, revealing Sabrina's bracelets right in the middle of it, entangled around all of the cables that went into the box. Lucia violently turned Zinzolin on his wet back, grabbed as many cables as she could from his chest, and shattered them. She then did the same with the mask on his face, which turned out to be way harder than it should've been, maybe Zinzolin had somehow ingrained it to his face. Nevertheless Lucia managed to rip it off, causing Zinzolin a great deal of pain. She moved right above him and knelt down, leaving his torso between her thighs, and grabbed his injured face,

"you think this is it? I did this from nothing, I'll come back and do it again," Zinzolin said below her,

"you won't,"

"yes I will, for always,"

"we'll see," Lucia said, then she punched Zinzolin hard in the jaw. He felt the hit just as much as he felt his skull shaking from it, all over his face all the way to the back of his head, infusing everything in between with pain, which somehow felt the worst on the inside of his head. She then punched him again, this time right on his mouth, and the abundant pain stayed in the inside of his lips and on his teeth. He couldn't help but let out a grievous, guttural moan,

"you still want to take over Unova?" Lucia asked angrily,

"yes..." Zinzolin cried, and she punched him again, this time on the nose, so hard it hurt her hand deeply even though his nose seemed like the softer choice. He let out another painful moan and grabbed his nose with both of his hands. Lucia then grabbed his hands and removed them from his face, then continued punching him without holding anything back, knowing that the more her first hurt, the more he suffered. And Zinzolin kept crying, louder after every hit which made his cranium shake from the constant hits and the pain. The back of his head hurt as much as the battered front. She kept hitting him, there seemed to be no end to her rage, and she became angrier and angrier after every hit,

"Lucia!" She then heard, stopped hitting Zinzolin and raised her head. Bianca, Jonny, Helma, Popito, and Quincey, and their pokemon, stood in front of her with relief visible in their faces. Lucia looked at them unapologetic, right on their eyes, while the rest of them looked at Bianca not sure of what to do. Bianca turned to Jonny after a few seconds, and Jonny looked back at Lucia, and nodded. She smiled, looked at the vividly red faced man below her, and punched him once more, sensing how his face now cushioned her hit better because of how swollen it was getting. She managed to hit him harder without getting hurt too much. She winded up another hit, and prepared to strike Zinzolin one more time, but before she could do it his shaky hand touched her arm and stroked it softly,

"please...stop...I won't...do this ever again," Zinzolin pleaded sorrowfully to her. She looked at the battered Zinzolin on the ground with anger in her eyes, then she let her arm down. Zinzolin let out a faint but haunting cry. Lucia ripped yet another piece of his robe and cleaned some blood off her hands with it, then threw it at his face,

"but I want you to do it again," she said as she got up, "try and take over Unova again, do it, but first take a look in the mirror and remember that now you have someone willing to hurt you to stop you, don't ever let me see that disfigured face again, or I might just fix it back for you," Lucia said with anger.

She kept looking at the man below her, who was in so much pain that he couldn't concentrate on screaming so his cries sounded like the whispers of an old sick man.

Everyone stayed quiet while Lucia breathed heavily and Zinzolin cried sorrowfully. No one knew what to do next, victory seemed so far and so unlikely, and yet they had won.

"All the trainers are gone," Bianca suddenly said,

"the mind control stopped and they just left, some of them even apologized to us," Helma added, but Lucia kept quiet, still catching her breath.

Time went by, they got out of the cave carrying a still unconscious Cheren with them. All of the remnants gathered at the entrance, they dragged Zinzolin away and left him on the ground near them, but they did not care for him in any way, they just wanted to save the police a tiring trip into victory road. They all looked at each other, they were free, they could see it on their faces. Cheren started snoring while he was sleeping on the ground next to Bianca, Jonny thought of something to say but chose to keep it to himself, and none of them moved.

Lucia looked at all of her friends and opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Sabrina and Colress appeared carrying a severely bruised Grimsley on their shoulders. They all faced each other, but everyone stood silent. Nobody knew what to do before, and now that feeling had multiplied,

"sorry," Sabrina scantily said. And then there was more silence,

"...we'll forgive you..." Jonny said, breaking the suffocating atmosphere, "...if you do one thing for us,"

"what's that?" Sabrina asked,

"you have to promise to stop chasing after us" Jonny naively said,

"done," Sabrina cheekily replied,

"alright it's all settled, we are all friends now although that doesn't mean I like you," Jonny continued, "now if you don't mind, me and Helma are going to take Lucia to wash her bloodied hands cause they are making me sick."

Helma reacted quickly and grabbed Lucia, who was still a bit on shock, by the arm and took her away, and Jonny and skuntank followed behind them. However, the boy and the pokemon stopped before reaching the nearby pond where Lucia and Helma were heading,

"skuntank, thank you for helping me," Jonny said, "your trainer is free from the mind control, and even though I don't want you to, you must go back to him now."

Skuntank growled sorrowfully and licked Jonny's hand,

"I don't have to be your trainer in order for us to be friends, besides, there's not much I can do for you, I always was a shit trainer, it's not what I want to do, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends, and I'd like to keep being friends with you if you don't mind."

Skuntank kept licking Jonny's hand and then it moved to lick his face joyfully,

"dude, dude! I don't like that stop it! Your trainer has you very pampered dude,"

"Skuntank!" The skuntank shouted at Jonny after letting him go,

"I've found my calling, I'm going to become a merchant, or rather, I'll continue being one, so tell all your friends okay, alright I guess it's time for you to go."

Jonny knelt and hugged skuntank honestly, albeit for just a second, and then watched it every step of the way as it made its way out of the zone and finally off his sight.

Skuntank passed Helma and Lucia on its way without them noticing it, and the two of them reached a small pond where Lucia started washing her hands,

"how do you feel?" Helma asked,

"I'm sad and my hands hurt," Lucia replied, "it only felt how I wanted it to feel when I started punching him, immediately afterwards it devolved into just blind rage and ultimately sadness, when I had him below me I stopped caring about him at all, it was all about me, I just wanted to show him how much stronger than him I was, and I completely forgot how much pain I was inflicting on that poor human being, a horribly misguided human being, but a human being nonetheless,"

"he deserved it, and he's still alive so he has a chance to change I guess," Helma interrupted her, "you did show him who was the boss, besides, your hands will heal, I'll make sure of that,"

"thanks."

Helma went over to hug Lucia and she took out her clean hands out of the water to reciprocate the hug, which could've lasted the whole afternoon.

"All this time I thought I knew the future," Sabrina said to Grimsley outside the cave, "but it was you who knew all along...you know the future don't you...you know what I'll say...I was wrong, this is my fault, I almost killed you,"

"before this goes on..." Colress interrupted, "technically it is my fault, I wanted to make team plasma disappear, I wanted to erase it from existence and from everyone's memory, I sent everyone I could to stop it, including Sabrina...I should've just asked you what you were doing, I saw you as a nuisance, I wanted you all gone,"

"...you didn't do this to me though, to any of us," Grimsley said, "I would love for you to apologize, in fact I'll accept any kind of repentance you have for me, as many apologies as you want, but I can't truly blame you for this, consider yourself released from your past or whatever,"

"if it is of any consolation, I was not left unharmed," Colress added, "if it matters, it seems everyone who deserved to be punished has in fact been given what they deserve, looking at that red pulp on the ground which used to be Zinzolin, and myself, because he did manage to rough me up a bit, for a good while,"

"what now?" Sabrina asked to everyone, and no one knew how to answer.

"I don't know about you," Grimsley spoke, "and I've never said this before, but I think I need a vacation,"

"you can go anywhere you want, and when I turn in my official report I'm sure everyone will change their minds about all of you, they'll probably hail you as heroes," Sabrina said,

"they better do, but I don't care for any praise, although you can keep praising me all you want, I won't complain, however, I do care for something I learned once, something I'd forgotten, something that, because of this, because of you, I've remembered, it is self respect. I used to think of myself as an aberration, the lowest of the low, until somebody change my mind, somebody who taught me that even if people still think of me as an aberration, and even if they aren't willing to change their minds, I'd still be alright, most people don't care about me, a lot of them could die and I wouldn't even know, only the people who truly care for me know who I am, and I am alright, not physically of course,"

"well said," Popito added, "you know, seeing all of my friends fight a battle just to protect my home has given me a new worldview, and a new sense of respect toward myself, I shall call it, self respect, a sense of it which is calling me to become a different entity from the being that saved my life, to whom I'll be eternally grateful, however it is time to be myself, so," he turned to face politoed, "master, I need you to release me from being my master,"

"politoed,,," politoed said,

"no? Okay, I tried," Popito said disheartened,

"anyway, to get back on track, I feel the same way Grimsley does," Quincey carried on, "today I fought for myself and I'm looking forward to keep doing so in the future, after our vacation,"

"what about the elite 4?" Bianca asked,

"they can stick it I'm leaving either way," Grimsley said, "if Sabrina wants my place she can have it, temporarily of course, she could let the people from the dojo have their gym back on Saffron city,"

"I defeated them fairly," Sabrina said with a defensive tone,

"yeah, because the people from the dojo used fighting types against you everyone knows that," Grimsley tested his luck,

"did you just go there?...You know what I owe you big time after what happened so I will gladly hold your place for as long as you need," Sabrina finalized.

Jonny, Helma, and Lucia, walked back to the group. They had never looked happier, each of them sporting wide smiles on their faces, mainly born out of relief.

"So what's the deal?" Jonny enthusiastically asked,

"we are going on vacation," Popito answered him,

"but what about the cave?" Helma cried out,

"I'll gladly take care of it for you, it'll be here waiting for you when you come back," Bianca said

"you are coming with us though," Jonny quickly replied,

"maybe I'll join you later, we can go wherever we want now, now you can visit me at the lab whenever you want, and even if you leave for a while we'll keep in touch now that you can visit me and Cheren, and we'll come here a lot too,"

"oh great, Cheren," Jonny said, "still I think we should say something to you, and I think all of the remnants feel the same way, you've really done a lot for us, maybe too much, you trusted us from the beginning even though we weren't so great, and you helped us realize that there are people like you who enjoy the company of weirdos who like to hang out in caves, and for that we'll be eternally grateful, or rather, we'll be grateful until we perish and our bodies disintegrate over time, leaving nothing of us in the foreseeable future, where nothing that we've said to you will matter because we'll have long ceased to exist, nevertheless it does matter now though,"

"that's so morbid," Bianca said with a smile on her face as she wiped one or two tears off her face.

Jonny turned to Colress, "what are you gonna do bro?"

"I don't know," Colress answered,

"why don't you come with us in our vacation?"

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know, but it has to be somewhere warmer than here for sure, maybe somewhere with a lot of beaches and where nothing bad ever happens,"

"alright, that sounds nice, maybe I'll take you up on that and join you, it would be nice to go somewhere else and continue my research..."

"what?!" Jonny asked incredulous, "what research, you are a scientist?"

"Yes,"

"dude I had no idea."


	29. Epilogue

A few days later...

Bianca was back at home after another day at the lab. She had regained all of her enthusiasm for the job she had chosen, the grass seemed greener, and the sun above her shone brighter, just for her.

She close the door behind her and then closed her eyes as she stood in her living room, and started to recapitulate everything she had done that day, all with the intention of keeping the memories of those happy days post-victory intact in her mind, so she could access them any time she wanted in the future. During those happy days, she saw her dad shake Helma's hand with an embarrassing expression of regret and shame on his face, right before he apologized profusely to her and Bianca herself. She also introduced the fully recovered Helma to the professor, who didn't remember biting Helma's arm or getting hit by her with a cane, she even agreed to sign Helma's book of autographs which already had a sizable amount of signatures with very special dedications for Helma's heroic deeds.

Bianca also saw Lucia, fully recovered from the injuries sustained at the giant chasm, looking more radiant than ever before. Bianca even had the honor of giving her friend all the necessary tools to start her own pokemon journey, except for a starter pokemon, as Lucia was already the very happy trainer of a newly acquired hondour, which she always held close to her and took it with her wherever she went.

Bianca also saw Jonny that very day, he was making Cheren, Popito, and Quincey laugh out loud. He had taken the first steps towards becoming a small business owner and seemed absolutely decided, he already had Popito and Quincey working for him.

And yet, even though seeing all those people made her really happy, there was one person missing, someone she hadn't seen since that day at the cave. She saw his face on her mind as the sun hid under the horizon and the moon showed itself, shining brightly right above her house, while she gazed right at it through the window on her living room, all by herself on her otherwise empty home.

Perhaps there was a reason she was thinking of Grimsley at that very moment, because she was able to see his shadow walk all the way from afar to her front door, and then she heard him knocking. She swiftly ran to the door and opened it for him, immediately catching his eyes, they seemed happy and healthy, however, the same couldn't be said about the rest of his body, including his face, he still looked quite decayed and also like he had aged a lot.

"Hey, are your parents home?" He asked Bianca,

"no," she answered,

"good, nothing against them, not even against your dad, but I'd rather not cause a scene, can I come in? I need to sit down I'm not fully recovered yet,"

"of course."

Bianca got out of the way so Grimsley could pass, he was wearing his regular black outfit and was carrying a rather large, equally black bag with him. He sat down on the middle of the couch and left his bag next to him. Bianca stood up right in front of him holding her hands together,

"how do you feel?" She asked Grimsley,

"well, I'll have you know this isn't the worst beatdown I've ever received, by far, but I must admit it's been a while, a long while, honestly I just need to find more comfortable clothes"

"even if you don't look as stylish?"

"I guess so, we all have to make sacrifices,"

"I guess so...so I understand you are ready to go on vacation with the rest of the guys,"

"yeah, and I understand you aren't coming,"

"sadly no, I kind of want to take my job more seriously, I've gained a lot more responsibilities actually, but I wouldn't rule out a weekend escapade, if you all wouldn't mind,"

"I'll ask the rest...anyway, as you aren't going I brought a few things I was hoping you'd look after for me while I'm gone,"

"sure, no problem...she was right you know," Bianca said, hoping Grimsley wouldn't get angry,

"about what?" He calmly asked,

"it doesn't matter what other people think of you, you are a good person,"

"right,"

"I mean it,"

"I know you do,"

"you gave them all a chance and saved their lives,"

"thanks. All I can do is look out for them though, for their safety I mean, I'm not outright malicious but there's nothing I could teach them that wouldn't get them in trouble, I really am a crook,"

"you've already taught them a very valuable lesson, you've taught it to me too, we all look up to you, and they'll always follow you,"

"I really hope they don't,"

"would it really be such a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure, I've spent so much of life looking for something meaningful to do until I get a good death, but I found a good life...speaking of death I have something for you," Grimsley said as he stuck his hand into the black bag. He pulled out the dissecated purrloin from his room, now in a smaller glass case,

"this I don't want you to keep for me, it is more like a gift, it's a gift, for you, I felt like I needed to give you something, I mean I wanted to give you something, but I suck at gifts, regardless, I thought this was rather appropriate after all that's happened,"

"it's perfect, I'll take very good care of it." Bianca approached Grimsley to take the purrloin from him, and she stood closer to him,

"thank you," she added,

"that took most of the space in the bag, however I also have some photographs that I want you to keep for me, those are still mine however,"

"fair enough."

Grimsley had to look away from Bianca, who was giving him a warm and honest smile. It was too much for him, but he knew he had to let her know "...I couldn't have done it without you," he said, looking straight into her eyes. The desire to keep looking into them was much more stronger than the urgency he had to look away,

"thanks, I definitely wouldn't have done it without you, you saved all of us,"

"no, I mean it," he said and she opened her eyes wide,

"I was glad to help," Bianca said before her throat closed from the anxiety that rushed to her chest,

"no, I mean it..." still sitting, Grimsley gently grabbed the purrloin from Bianca's hands and placed it safely on the ground, then he grabbed her right hand and kissed it with his eyes closed, and he didn't let go. Bianca thought she was dreaming, she'd never had a dream explicitly detailing what was seemingly happening, but she knew it was only a matter of time, as he had been dwelling on her subconscious ever since she had met him, and she only didn't let him enter her daydreams because she knew she wouldn't be able to get him out, but all that didn't matter anymore, and she was more than happy about it.

Grimsley finally let go of her hand and stood up rather slowly, it was obvious he wasn't joking about not being fully recovered,

"are you sure you are okay?" Bianca asked genuinely worried,

"I am better than I've been for a long time,"

"...can you tell me her name?"

"If I ever tell anyone, it will be you, I'll tell you...take care Bianca,"

"you too Grimsley..."

Grimsley left the bag and the purrloin on the floor of Bianca's house and walked out. Bianca accompanied him to the door and stood outside watching him walk away into the night, while the moon hanged brightly above them.

The end.


End file.
